Breaking Barriers
by unicorn1111
Summary: Olivia Benson is faced with a case that will test her to the limits and perhaps beyond, with guest appearances from Castle's Kate Beckett and CSI:NY's Mac Taylor but this is Liv's story. Set in my Intersecting Lines universe but this one stands alone, you don't need to have read those to enjoy this one.
1. Chapter 1

As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders, and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us. To them we owe a vast debt of gratitude for the pleasure they bring us. No infringement of their rights is intended, but thank you for letting us play with them, just for a little while.

 **Breaking Barriers Chapter 1**

 **Author's Note**

Hi and welcome to this story, the latest that sits inside my ' **Intersecting Line's** ' universe of shared stories. The 'verse revolves around the main characters of Rizzoli and Isles but drags in a number of other characters from other crimes shows, including The Closer, Major Crimes, Castle and as here; Law and Order SVU.

You don't need to have read those stories to appreciate this one, it is mostly stand-alone, though other stories in the 'verse will relate back to the events in this story.

The only background you need to know for this story is that Alex Cabot and Olivia Benson, after years of friendship are now a couple and that a long time ago, beat cop Olivia Benson had a young rookie named Kate Beckett assigned as her partner. They have both travelled far from that time and lost track of each other over the years before reconnecting some six months ago at a function, rekindling their former close friendship.

Some of the background to that friendship can be found in my story " **Hamptons Hiatus** ", which deals with a weekend Liv and Alex enjoyed staying at Rick and Kate's place on Long Island.

I hope you enjoy this story..

As always, all rights remain with the creators of Law & Order:SVU, Castle and CSI:NY and the wonderful actors who have brought the characters to life for us. Thanks for letting us add a little more to their stories.

 **Olivia**

Detective Sergeant Olivia Benson was tired of seeing the inside of too many New York alleyways just like this one, they were all the same; miserable, dank and dirty, crowded with dumpsters, discarded cardboard pizza boxes, crushed cans, stray bits of old and broken furniture, smashed bottles and the detritus of modern life in New York City.

They weren't the reason she was called to them though, far too often they also held the remains of a life, left smashed, broken and discarded like so much trash. This one was not that different except in its victim's age, or lack of it.

A young girl, maybe 12 years old, 14 tops, maybe less, lay between two dumpsters, her pretty blonde hair now matted with blood, barely clothed in a stained pair of lace filigree panties and torn silk stockings, shockingly inappropriate for a girl of her age.

The way her leg and arm lay twisted at weird angles suggested violence, Olivia hoped like hell they were done after death, they would have been unbelievably painful otherwise. No one, let alone a child, should have gone through this abuse.

"Hey Liv" Melinda Warner, the 16th Precinct's resident Medical Examiner quietly greeted her approach.

"Hiya Mel, what we got?" Melinda looked down at the small body next to her, sadness in her voice, despite all her experience no one liked dealing with kids.

"Child, can't tell the age exactly yet, but early teens is my guess. Homeless guy found her and told a street cop around five AM. Time of death's about 2.30 this morning" Olivia nodded, so few of her cases happened at civilised hours, in fact…

"How come I didn't get the call until after seven?" Melinda shrugged.

"They thought it was a normal homicide, until I got a good look at her. She shows all the signs of repeated sexual activity, anal, oral and vaginal so it's an SVU case" Olivia winced, so young… She looked around, checking the area, why here?

"So any idea what killed her?" Melinda shook her head as she replied.

"She was dead before she hit" Olivia looked up at the words, frowning.

"Hit?" Melinda gestured up above them both as she spoke.

"She was thrown or pushed from an upper story window" Olivia's gaze immediately rose up the side of the building that formed one side of the alley, taking in five stories of windows. Her eyes flicked back to the body.

"You're sure, I mean if she was dead why the bleeding?" If she was dead before the fall there should be almost no bleeding. Melinda stood and indicated the rear corners of the two adjacent dumpsters; blood decorated one dumpster, while remnants of a torn silk stocking were hooked on the other.

"Pretty sure, her head split open on the dumpster, the bleeding was due to the wound being at the lowest point of the body where she fell and gravity did the rest. She was almost certainly dead before she dropped though" Olivia nodded as Melinda looked around, looking for Amaro. "Hey Liv, where's your partner?"

"Oh him, Amaro's off for at least a month, maybe more, he tore a bunch of ligaments in his right leg chasing that suspect in the Feeny case down a fire escape" She shrugged. "It'll heal, but he's off for a while and won't be running for longer, so I'm flying solo for a bit" Liv made a what can you do gesture. "Everyone else is running their own cases and I caught this one, so you're stuck with just me at the moment, at least until I get a temporary partner" Melinda nodded then continued.

"Un huh, well, I can't tell you much more until I get her down to Autopsy. I waited until you got here so you could see it before we moved her" Olivia smiled her thanks for the ME's courtesy, Melinda had to have been here for at least two hours and it was damned cold, another miserable winter was on its way. Melinda was still speaking. "You'll want to talk to Connolly and Fong from Homicide, they caught the case initially and they've started checking the hotel" Olivia nodded, stepping back to let Melinda's team move in to move the body. ' _So small..._ '

Olivia looked down at the coffee in her hand; suddenly it wasn't quite so appealing anymore. Finally she looked up at the M.E.

"Thanks Mel, I'll go talk to them, see what they've scared up" She smiled sadly at her friend and colleague. "Call me when you've got anything?" At Melinda's answering nod she turned and walked away.

Another dead body, worse, another dead child. They were always the hardest to deal with. Olivia should have been outraged, should have been angry, but what she really felt was tired. Tired and numb, the job was taking its toll, every day was a struggle, getting up, leaving Alex and heading in to face still more death and horror.

She'd been doing this for almost a decade and a half; thought she'd seen everything, but people still found ways to get to her, new ways to demonstrate their ability to set new benchmarks in horror, each leaving their mark on her, like high tide marks on her soul, drowning her in death and depravity and despair. Once she'd been young and full of piss and wind, every case was a race to catch the bastard who'd done it, a chance to help the living and avenge the dead, but now…

She'd managed to build a wall around her emotions, trying to hold herself intact in the face of what she'd seen and experienced over all those years. Now her wall was crumbling, each new horror, each new atrocity and each sickening death chipping away another small portion of that wall, the darkness seeping through the cracks and into her soul.

Sooner or later she was going to have to walk away, get away from SVU. She'd thought about it, talked to Alex about it, but each time she'd had to push it aside as another case had come in, another victim calling out for justice, for her.

They needed her; without doubt she was the best SVU detective in the whole NYPD, with the decorations, the commendations and the psychological scars to prove it, that's why she got the worst cases, but how much more could she give before there was nothing left to give? She didn't have the answer, didn't know how much longer she could do this, all she could do was focus on the case, try and bring some comfort to the living and some closure to the dead.

It was her calling, it's what she did, but at what cost?


	2. Chapter 2

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 2**

 **Kate**

Leaning forward to peer into the small indent in the wall of the bridge supports, Detective Kate Beckett gave a small sad sigh, 's _o young_ '.

For a moment she wasn't a Homicide detective, just a woman, someone who wanted kids of her own one day, to see a child like this, a life wasted… She sighed again before the woman retreated and the hard detective armour reappeared to wrap around her heart. She took a moment to look around, taking in the scene illuminated by the light of her torch; no sun penetrated this deep under the bridge. She noted the young boy's position, he was slumped against the wall, no signs of violence, but he had vomited heavily, the ground was covered in it, as was his clothes.

Brown hair, slightly Slavic or Eastern European features, slim but not skinny, no signs of violence or of whatever had killed him. ' _Who are you_ '?' Moving back into the open, she stood up and turned to face her friend.

"What do we know Lanie?" The 12th Precinct's Medical Examiner nodded to her assistant's to retrieve the body before stepping back and looking over at her friend, her voice resigned.

"No signs of recent violence, no signs of drug use, at least without a full examination, looks like he's maybe 13 or 14, 15 tops. At this point I don't have a proper cause of death, it could be exposure but he doesn't look thin enough to be a true street kid and he's dressed reasonably warmly. I'll know more once I get him back for examination"

Lanie shrugged, Lanie Parish was their ME; her job was to get the dead to tell their tales, dealing with the living was Beckett's job. They watched as Lanie's assistants lifted the boy out carefully, Beckett noting the brand-name sneakers and jeans and the fleecy top over a collared shirt. She wasn't the only one, the ME raised an eyebrow.

"Not exactly street kid's wear is it?" Beckett shook her head; the clothes were too clean and looked kinda new. Taking in Kate's silence Lanie looked up at her friend, her voice quiet. "I'll see what I can find"

Kate nodded and pushed out a smile with her thanks; sure she'd get a call when Lanie knew something. She looked around in time to see her detectives, Ryan and Esposito, finishing up with the uniformed cops, they looked up and waited as she walked towards them and asked the question that kicked each new case off.

"What's the story?" Kevin Ryan looked down at his notebook and started reading his notes out loud.

"Called in by an anonymous tip from a pre-paid cell, despatch said the caller sounded young, probably not much older than our vic" Javier Esposito nodded and chimed in.

"Looking at the area, this looks a lot like the sort of place street kids hang around, probably one of them made the call" Beckett frowned as she looked round, Espo was probably right, looking back at her team as she replied.

"Lanie thinks that the vic doesn't look like your typical street kid, not burnt out enough, clothes are too good and new as well" All three turned to watch as the vic was zipped up in a body bag before Beckett turned back to her colleagues.

"I'll start with missing person records, Javie, check with Juvenile, maybe they have some ideas who normally hangs around here, see if they can scare up some names" Esposito nodded as she turned to Ryan. "Kevin, Find out where the cell was bought from, maybe we can get some video of whoever bought it" She shrugged. "It's a long shot I know but we seem to be dealing with kids and kids make mistakes"

They both nodded at her before they turned to see the body loaded into the back of the coroner's van. Finally Esposito spoke, his voice quiet.

"That they do"


	3. Chapter 3

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 3**

 **O** **livia**

The morgue was cool, as if the room itself was chilled by the death that passed through it. Logically Olivia knew why it was kept cold, but she still felt that the chill in here had more to it than just the temperature.

"Hey Liv" She looked up to see Melinda walking her way. "I have some preliminary results for you" Olivia leaned back against a row of cabinets, looking down at the small, still, body modestly covered by a sheet from the neck down, with her face and hair cleaned the victim's angelic beauty shone through.

"Thanks Mel, what can you tell me about her?" Melinda stopped by the child on the table, she'd cut the girl open almost four hours ago and sewn her back up less than a hour later, it was her job but that didn't make it any easier. She had kids of her own; it didn't take much imagination to see them here on her table. She reached out and laid her hand on the young girl's forehead, sending silent prayer to a god she barely believed in anymore, to safeguard this one's soul. She gave a small sigh, a combination of sadness and weariness, then opened her eyes and looked up to the woman watching her quietly, seeing the understanding in the detective's eyes. Nodding once she answered Olivia's question.

"I can confirm the fall was not the cause of death; she was dead before she went out that window" Melinda shook her head slowly. "I can't give you the exact cause of death, but toxicology turned up some weird compounds in the girl's bloodstream, like nothing I've ever seen before" Olivia frowned as she glanced up at Melinda and asked the question.

"What's it looking like, some new kind of designer drug?" Warner shrugged as she replied.

"Damned if I know, it's some kind of hybrid organic chemical substance, some of its pretty nasty stuff so it's not a recreational drug. I'm pretty sure it killed her but I don't know how" At Olivia's wondering look she shrugged. "I'm sending it off to the main Crime Lab downtown; flagged for urgent analysis by their senior people. They have more resources and people to look at it so hopefully we'll hear something soon" Olivia nodded, already deep in thought as she added those scraps of information to the few others she had so far then spoke.

"Ok, what else can you tell me?" Melinda frowned, sure she worked a lot of cases but SVU were the worst, never more so than when kids were involved. She looked up and delivered the bad news to the weary-looking woman in front of her.

"She's had significant sexual activity; I mean a lot of it. Not just recently either, I found new scarring on top of old scarring on top of even older scarring, vaginally and anally" Olivia winced, it meant one thing.

"So long term sexual abuse" Melinda nodded sadly.

"Over many months, probably longer, it's hard to be exactly certain. As for her age, hard to tell but she's definitely not started menstruating yet, so probably younger than 16. If I had to take a guess I'd say 13 or 14." Olivia closed her eyes for a moment as that hit home; ' _oh_ _dear go_ _d'_.

Finally she forced them open again and spoke quietly.

"Thanks Mel, anything else?" The ME shook her head sadly.

"Not much, but I can tell you she shows some sign of older injuries, stress fractures on her forearms and a partially-healed cracked rib. Also, she has really poor dental work, the sort of thing I'd associate with parts of Eastern Europe or the old Soviet Union, some of their dental work's pretty bad even now, especially in the poorer parts of those countries" Olivia frowned as she thought that through them spoke.

"So possibly brought into the country from there?" The women traded a look before Olivia voiced what both of them were thinking. "In that case maybe it' snot familial child abuse; international child sex trafficking maybe?" Melinda sighed sadly then spoke, her voice tired.

"I think I've got everything I can out of this poor girl Liv, until I get something back from the Crime Lab, it's up to you" Olivia nodded slowly, it usually was.

"Thanks Doc, call me when you hear, ok?" At Melinda's answering nod, she turned to walk out, before pausing to look down at the young girl. ' _Who were you little one_ '?

Not getting an answer, not that she expected one, Olivia sighed before making her way out of the room and back to her desk, she had work to do.


	4. Chapter 4

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 4**

 **K** **ate**

Across town, in a similarly cold room, Kate Beckett was looking down into the now-clean face of the young boy she'd last seen back under the bridge as Lanie brought her up to date.

"Our vic had no sign of recent wounds, nothing that would contribute to their death, though I did find signs of prior, older injuries"

"What sort of injuries?"

"Fractures and breaks, one of the long bones in his left arm and two of the ribs, mostly healed, some only recently, the last few months" Lanie looked up at Kate, her lips thinning. "I found lots of other injuries too" Kate looked up, it wasn't like her friend to be so cryptic.

"What kind of injuries?" Lanie frowned, looking down at the young boy's face, quiet now in death then sighed before looking up at Kate and speaking.

"Repeated signs of sexual assault, obviously going back months, perhaps years" Kate closed her eyes, this wasn't usually the sort of cases she dealt with, Special Victims Unit were the experts, but Kate was reluctant to give up a case to someone else, not when she felt it, felt the need to bring justice to the person who did this. In the end though it wasn't her call, it'd probably be taken off her, until then it was her case and she had a job to do. Opening her eyes again she looked up at her friend and asked the question that started all of her cases.

"What was the cause of death then?" Lanie slumped back against the bench behind her, her hands coming to rest against the bench top on each side of her hips as she shook her head slowly.

"I wish to god I knew; I can't pin it down to anything in particular. Blood results came back screwy so I'm having toxicology and blood work results done again in the hope that we might get some idea what they are. I've never seen anything like it" Kate frowned, Lanie was good, very good; if it was something she didn't know…

"Oh, in what way?" The ME shrugged before replying to Kate's question.

"Partially organic, partially man-made, some of it already being broken down by the body and almost gone, others quite prevalent" She shrugged again. "Like I said, I'm getting the Crime Lab downtown to retest for everything possible" Kate nodded slowly, until then she'd go with what she could get, speaking of which...

"Do we have an age or something else I can work with, anything?" Lanie levered herself up off the bench and stepped back up to the body. Gently opening the mouth she motioned Kate over.

"Based on the evidence I'd say 13 or 14 years old and, as you can see here…" She moved the head back and opened the victim's mouth wide… "You can see that the dental work's pretty shoddy. If I had to guess I'd say not done here in the States, somewhere else, poorer maybe" Kate looked down at the boy, taking in the pale hair and features, comparing it to places she'd visited in her youth.

"Maybe Eastern Europe, Russia, the Ukraine, Belorussia or even the Balkans" Lanie nodded.

"That'd fit with the appearance and the dental work" They both looked down at the body on the table for a few moments, both quiet. Finally, nodding a goodbye Kate made a move, heading towards the door, before Lanie's voice called her attention back.

"Heard anything from writer boy?" Kate automatically smiled at her friend's nickname for her boyfriend Rick Castle as she turned back to answer Lanie.

"Castle's in England still, apparently his books sell well over there so his publishers insisted that he go there to promote Frozen Heat" Lanie smiled.

"Shame you couldn't have gone with him" Kate nodded, wishing she could have too.

"Would have been nice, I've always wanted to visit there, London in particular, but I blew most of my holiday time with him up in the Hamptons a few months back. I'm saving the rest for some time off together at Christmas" Lanie smiled, she was rather fond of Rick Castle, plus he was the best thing to ever happen to her friend.

"Pity he isn't here now" Kate laughed happily before she spoke.

"You know Castle, he'd have some insane theory that this was the work of the KGB and this was some polonium poisoning thing, right out of a spy novel" Lanie laughed with her before subsiding, her voice quiet.

"One thing I can confirm, it wasn't polonium poisoning" Kate looked at her, her head tilted to one side, surprise on her face.

"You checked?" Lanie shrugged.

"Like I said, I ordered full tests on everything I could think of, the radiation tests came back from the lab clean. The tox results are getting the full treatment, should start getting results within 24 hours" At Kate's surprised look Lanie smiled. "I pulled some strings, called in a few favours with the Crime Lab, got them to put a rush on it" Kate smiled, grateful that Lanie was on the case. She looked down at the young boy, before nodding to Lanie.

"Thanks, I'll go check in with Ryan and Esposito, see what they've turned up. Let me know when the lab results get in please" Lanie smiled.

"You got it"

Kate turned and walked out through the double doors, her mind already elsewhere.


	5. Chapter 5

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 5**

 **O** **livia**

There were times that Olivia felt like smacking her head against her desk in frustration, cases with no leads and nothing to go on. Fortunately this wasn't one of those cases, if anything there was too much evidence.

The hotel room had been a treasure trove of fingerprints and DNA traces. Obviously as a rent by the hour or day room, that was to be expected, but this stuff was solid. Cutlery used to eat, a toothbrush left behind, traces of vomit on the shower and toilet, DNA retrieved from the victim's body, the sheets, the couch and the clothes. The clothes, dear god the clothes…

A range of clothing sized for the victim, but wildly inappropriate for a girl that age, the sort of thing a hooker might wear to tease a john. Olivia had seen way too much in her career but leather thigh-high stiletto boots sized for a 13 or 14 year old girl? ' _Oh my fucking god, I need a holiday bad, somewhere far, far away from all this_ '.

She'd originally thought it was some sort of abuse scenario but more and more her instincts were pointing to something way more professional. The clothing would have had to be made to measure, all of which would have cost plenty and given how quickly children grew at that age, would have had a limited lifespan.

Prostitution, especially for severely underage children, was a very lucrative enterprise, enough so that some criminals were prepared to risk the long prison sentences and the dangers in the prison system that child sex traffickers faced to make vast amounts of money from their clients. Lots of ordinary criminals took a very poor view of people who trafficked in young children, their fate inside no different than those who directly molested kids. She mightn't be the final arbiter of their ultimate fate, but most of those criminals didn't live long enough inside prison to see the light of day at the end of their sentence, something which brought her a quiet, secret sense of dark satisfaction.

Catching movement heading her way from the corner of her eye Olivia looked up to see Melinda Warner navigating through the bullpen, obviously heading for Olivia.

"Hi Mel, don't get to see you up here often, what's up?" Melinda looked around at the grungy pit that housed the 16th Precinct's SVU squad, before carefully selecting a reasonably uncluttered corner of Olivia's desk to perch on.

"No offence Liv, but normally I stick to the morgue, it's a bit…" Olivia grinned, not at all offended.

"Quieter…cleaner…neater?" She prompted. Melinda smiled.

"How about all of the above" Olivia laughed, happy to have the diversion. She'd really been looking forward to Alex dropping by but she'd just texted to say she was still tied up in court; the defence in her current case was posturing and dragging the inevitable result out, much to Alex's disgust. That left Liv's case as her primary concern.

"Anything come back from the lab?" Melinda frowned.

"As a matter of fact, yes, we've been asked to come down to the Crime Lab. They want to talk to us both" Olivia's eyebrows lifted in surprise, her voice full of doubt

"Both of us, really?" Melinda shrugged.

"Yep, they want us there at 2 this afternoon, you ok with that?" Olivia shrugged in return.

"Sure, 2 works for me" Olivia was actually hoping to grab a bite to eat with Alex if her trial ended in time, looks like she was going to have to cancel, again. "Any idea what they found that they want us both there for?" Melinda shook her head.

"Nothing that I could get out of them over the phone, they just asked us both to be there" Liv thought that over for a second, it was bound to be nothing good, ah well, they'd find out soon enough. She looked up at her friend and spoke.

"I'll see you at what...1.20, 1.30?" Nodding, Melinda replied.

"1.30 works for me, we can grab a cab together, no way are we going to get parking down there at that time of day" Liv made a note on a pad in front of her and looked up as she spoke.

"Sound's good, I'll swing by at 1.25 and pick you up" Melinda nodded and stood,

"See you then" With that she turned and left, leaving Olivia with her thoughts.


	6. Chapter 6

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 6**

 **K** **ate**

Walking out of the lift, Kate and Lanie turned towards the reception area before both slid to a stop. Kate was marginally faster.

"Liv?" Lanie wasn't far behind.

"Mel?" The other women turned as one, both faces wreathed in smiles.

"Kate!"

"Hey Lanie, what are you doing here?" Lanie waved her hand to take in the area.

"Got called in to discuss some results on a case, what about you?" Melinda shrugged.

"Pretty much the same, what have you been up to? I haven't seen you since that conference a few months back" As the two ME's caught up Olivia and Kate were doing much the same.

"You're looking good Kate, Castle must be treating you right" Kate smirked.

"I've got no complaints. How are you and Alex?" Liv smiled, her friend's obvious happiness lifting her spirits.

"Oh we're good, though I'm really starting to think we need to take a holiday somewhere far from New York" Kate laughed then spoke.

"I hear that. Castle's in England on a book tour, he wanted me to go with him, but I couldn't right now. Hopefully we'll get some time soon, maybe get away for a few days" Liv could empathise with that.

"That'd be nice, go somewhere warm, lying out on the beach under the sun" Kate grinned happily.

"Yeah right, you and Alex in bikinis, remind me not to tell Castle about that" Liv snickered before replying.

"He still hung up on that weekend up at the Hamptons or still on that night at the Mayor's Ball?" Liv and Kate both chuckled in happy recollection before Kate spoke, her lips in a smirk at the memory.

"Hell yeah, I had him wrapped round my finger for ages after that" They both smiled happily at their memories of that night, prompting Kate to ask. "How are your friends in LA?"

"They're all good, I chatted to Jane about two weeks ago, they're both happy in LA, want us to come and visit again" Kate nodded as a thought came to Liv. "You and Rick should come with us; they'd love to see you again and return your hospitality. Besides I'm sure we can mess with him again" Kate smirked.

"Castle, surrounded by half a dozen beautiful women; I can see the attraction for him but what's in it for me?" Liv just snickered.

"Given they're all unavailable, he'd have to take out his…frustrations with you" Kate nodded slowly.

"Good point" Kate suddenly realised the other two women were listening to their conversation; she turned to make introductions. "Oh sorry, this is Lanie Parish, Lanie's the M.E. for the 12th" Olivia smiled and held out a hand.

"Hi, Olivia Benson, 16th SVU, I see you know Melinda Warner" She nodded. For Kate's benefit she introduced them. "Kate, Melinda's our M.E., Mel, this is Kate Beckett, Homicide over at the 12th, we're old friends from back in the day pounding the beat in the 26th Precinct" Greetings were exchanged before they got down to business, Liv kicking it off.

"So what brings you and... Lanie is it" At a nod Liv smiled. "What brings you down here?" Before anyone could answer a male voice cut through.

"That would be me" Turning to look they saw a slim, dark-haired man in a suit, standing in a doorway, his face a catalogue of a life filled with stress and sorrow.

"Mac Taylor, I'm the head of the Crime Lab, thanks for coming down, we've got some things we need to talk about. Come on in"

The four women exchanged glances before walking in through the door he held open for them.


	7. Chapter 7

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 7**

 **K** **ate**

"Thanks for coming down so quickly" As Taylor spoke he led them through the NYPD's main crime lab, a place familiar to both Lanie and Melinda but all-new to both detectives; Liv shared a sideways glance with Kate before the younger woman spoke.

"No problem, what exactly did you need us for?" Taylor glanced over his shoulder as he led them through a cluster of individual labs, white-coated techs working away.

"We got a request for a full-on tox screen yesterday afternoon, As it was flagged for special attention I passed it on to my Assistant Supervisor who got everything started" He turned a corner and led them towards an open door leading to a conference room as he continued. "We were just getting started when another, identical request came in" He led them into the conference room where a striking dark-haired woman waited. "I'd like you to meet Jo Danville; she's our Assistant Supervisor and the person who handled both requests"

Introductions were made between the CSI tech and the detectives while Lanie and Melinda both nodded, they'd known Jo ever since she'd arrived at the Lab. Inviting them to sit, Jo took up the narrative as Taylor propped himself up against a counter and watched.

"You can imagine our surprise when both requests came in almost simultaneously, both asking for the same treatment. That was nothing to the shock we got when both sets of analysis came back with identical results" There was a ripple of surprise around the table as they each took in the implications, Melinda was the quickest.

"Identical? So there's a connection" Danville nodded.

"The blood work showed a complex toxin in both sets of blood, complex and lethal" Liv nodded.

"So they were poisoned" Danville made a non-committal gesture.

"Yes and no" That got her puzzled looks from everyone. "Besides the toxin, we found traces of another compound, rapidly breaking down. It seems to neutralise the toxin, supress it's effects" Kate frowned.

"So both victims were poisoned, but had an antidote administered? What killed them?" Mac spoke up from where he stood.

"The poison killed them, because the suppressant breaks down in the body. As long as it's there the toxin is suppressed, but as the body breaks it down the toxin starts killing the vic" Lanie and Melinda both went to speak, before exchanging a glance. Lanie made an 'after you' gesture and Melinda smiled gratefully before speaking.

"Do we know what the toxin is, or the suppressant?" Both CSI's shook their heads before Jo took up the story.

"The toxin's very complex, as both of you had noted in your initial tests, it's a complex mix of both organic and man-made compounds, I've not seen anything like it before. Same with the suppressant" Lanie frowned and spoke.

"So it's something new?" Jo shrugged.

"We've got nothing like it in our archives, so I've forwarded it to the Federal Government for review as they may know more" Mac shifted position and spoke up.

"What can you tell me about the cases?" Kate and Liv exchanged glances before Liv nodded slightly. Giving a small smile of thanks, Kate turned to look at the CSI's.

"Vic was a boy, early teens, found dead under a bridge in a known street kid area. No obvious signs of injury but he was covered in vomit. He was reasonably well dressed, well nourished, didn't look like he belonged there. Lanie found signs of sexual abuse and older injuries, mostly healed" Mac nodded and prompted her to continue.

"Your conclusions?" Kate shrugged, it was early days.

"Too early yet, still trying to track down who called it in and checking missing persons" Taylor nodded and looked over at Liv who leaned forward and brought them all up to speed.

"Our vic was a young girl, also early teens, her body had been thrown from a hotel window, she was dead before she was thrown" She nodded at Kate and Lanie. "Some similarities with your case, signs of systematic sexual abuse and older injuries, traces of vomit found in the hotel room" Mac nodded and prompted her as well.

"And your conclusions?" Liv too shrugged as she replied.

"A bit early yet, but the signs were that the girl was either a sex slave or an underage prostitute. The clothing she was wearing and found in the hotel room supported that conclusion. We interviewed the manager; the room was rented for two days, the guy paid cash and then later extended for two more days" She held up her hand. "The reception camera's not the best quality, nothing good enough for an immediate identification, but we're still processing the rest of the evidence from the room" Melinda rolled her eyes then commented.

"As you can imagine in a rent by the hour room, there's lots of evidence, it's going to be a while sifting through it" Mac nodded as he replied.

"The Crime Lab's at your disposal, forward what you have to us and we'll put people on it" He turned to Kate. "Where to now with your case?" Kate leaned forward to speak.

"Like Liv's case, too early to tell, we have a lot less evidence so we're still chasing leads down. I've got Juvenile chasing down the street kids who live there, but nothing so far. Also looking into the clothes the victim was wearing, looking for labels and where they were bought, but I'm not hopeful" She looked round at Lanie. "There was one thing, the vic's dental work…" Lanie took up the thread.

"Yeah, poor quality dental work, not done here in the States, combined with the Slavic features of the vic I'd say Eastern Europe or maybe the Russian Federation" They both noticed the looks passed between Liv and Melinda before the SVU M.E. nodded and spoke up.

"Our vic also had bad dental work, sounds like the same as yours" Kate tilted her head.

"Slavic features?" Melinda shook her head.

"No, not really, Northern European, blonde hair, pale skin, blue eyes, more Nordic than anything" Kate frowned as she recalled her experiences over there.

"That could also be Northern Russia or some of the Baltic regions like Estonia or Latvia; you see a lot of fair-skinned blue-eyed blondes there as well" Taylor nodded slowly then spoke up.

"Well, it seems like your cases are linked, not just by the toxin. We've been asked to pull both cases together and work on them as a combined team" Liv's head came up.

"Asked by whom?" Mac shrugged and looked round, taking everyone in before replying.

"The FBI, they called me not long after we got the results and then quizzed their databases looking for matches. It got flicked up to one of their senior people and she called me" Kate and Liv exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing, " _The Bureau, oh great_ ', before Kate looked up at Mac.

"Did they give you any reasons why it was so important to them" Mac made a non-committal gesture with his hands.

"I was hoping they'd be here by now but they were held up, she said she'd be here soon" Liv frowned then asked.

"She?"

"Special Agent Jordan Shaw" Kate sighed, feeling a headache coming on, a big one.


	8. Chapter 8

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 8**

 **O** **livia**

The group was still chatting when Special Agent Jordan Shaw arrived. Given Kate's reaction to her name I gave her the once over; attractive, late-40s and in good shape, fit looking, reddish-blonde hair, reminding me a little of one of our ADA's, Casey Novak; wearing a blue skirt suit and heels and a white Oxford that to my experienced eyes practically screamed 'Fed'. Shaw got down to business immediately.

"Afternoon everyone, good to see you again Detective Beckett, where's your sidekick?" I watched Kate roll her eyes; there was obviously prior history between those two.

"Castle's in England, on business" Shaw nodded once.

"Pity, we could use him, he does come in handy" She looked around the room. "I'm Special Agent Shaw of the FBI's New York office, the reason I called you in is because the request from the NYPD crime lab was flagged when it reached the FBI. That toxin has turned up before" Liv leaned forward, the first to ask.

"Where?" Shaw turned to look at me.

"In the bodies of two 13 year old girls, their plane from St Petersburg was diverted to Washington when a snow storm last winter closed the NYC airports" She shrugged. "As is procedure with unaccompanied children under 16 arriving in the States at a different entry port than expected, both kids were held pending contact with a guardian, during which time they both got sick and then died" Shaw grimaced.

"Needless to say, no guardian turned up and a search found a fake address and name. Autopsy determined it was a particularly ugly toxin that dates back to the cold war, used by the nastier elements of the KGB" Mac swapped a glance with Jo before interjecting.

"The KGB, what do they have to do with this?" Shaw spread her hands as she replied.

"Probably nothing; the toxin was used as a coercive tool, injected or ingested; the victim had a few days before they died unless they got the suppressant. Made a nice way to ensure people stayed loyal and receptive. If they ran they toxin would kill them, very, very painfully" Kate frowned and then spoke up.

"Nasty, how did it turn up here?" Shaw shrugged.

"We think members of the Russian mob, which includes a number of former KGB officers, managed to get their hands on the formula for both the toxin and the suppressant" Danville leaned forward and joined the conversation.

"And are using it on these kids?" Shaw nodded.

"Basically yes" I thought about it for a second then asked the obvious.

"Did you have any leads, anything on where the kids had come from or where they were going?"

"Not much, both were in possession of genuine Russian Federation passports however the names and details were fakes; we got cooperation from the Militia, the Russian police, but they didn't find much. Best they could come up with was that the kids were sold to someone in Russia, a fake adoption scam basically; then put on the plane here"

"What about any leads this end" It was Kate. "Is anyone at this end looking good as a suspect?" Shaw shook her head.

"Possibly, we've done some cross-checking with immigration and there seems to have been an ongoing series of unaccompanied kids shipped here over the last two years, all from Russia on direct flights to New York" Lanie shook her head at the thought then looked at Shaw and spoke..

"How many kids are we talking about here?" Shaw didn't sugar coat it.

"We believe it could be as high as a dozen, maybe more" Appalled looks were shared around the table before finally Lanie Parish spoke up.

"This toxin, do we have the antidote, or at least the suppressant?" Shaw shook her head.

"We're not sure there is an antidote, at least the Russian's haven't been forthcoming with one so far" Kate and I exchanged a look that spoke volumes before Kate looked back at Shaw.

"What about the suppressant?" Shaw leaned back against the wall.

"Same, we might be able to synthesise one if we can get to a carrier who still has the suppressant in their bloodstream, unfortunately everyone we've encountered with the toxin in them had been dead, the suppressant broken down by the body before we realised what we were dealing with" As I thought that over I saw Taylor grimace then ask Shaw a question.

"And no help from the Russians?" Shaw just shook her head grimly.

"Nothing so far" Melinda looked around at the group before glancing over at Shaw.

"So you're saying we need to find someone with a recent dose of the suppressant in them, or an actual example of the suppressant, so we can analyse it and develop a copy?" Shaw nodded.

"Pretty much that's it in a nutshell" Kate sat back in her chair then asked the obvious question.

"Do you have a possible suspect or are we starting from scratch?"

"A couple of Russian mobsters were investigated, but while they turned up dirty for some things, they were clean on this" Shaw shrugged as she continued. "The Bureau believes that this is a clean skin, someone with no prior record in this country" I sighed then summarised it into a sentence.

"So we're starting from scratch" Shaw was unfazed.

"Yes Detective Benson, we are starting from scratch"


	9. Chapter 9

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 9**

 **O** **livia**

Given the lack of space at the 16th, we'd agreed that we'd work out of the 12th precinct's building, Kate having got agreement from her boss, Captain Gates, not that I thought we'd have a problem, not with approval from 1PP and the FBI and with the NYPD's Crime Lab backing our investigation. I'd met two of Kate's detectives, Ryan and Esposito; they'd be backing us up, doing some of the hard, boring grind that makes up an investigation; Kate said she had every confidence in their actions which was enough for me.

Shaw, Kate and I ended up in a break room, sitting around a table drinking good quality coffee from an espresso machine, apparently a gift to the precinct from her partner, Richard Castle. I had to say I could get very used to that at work. Shaw was quizzing me on the evidence from the scene.

"So what did you recover?" I shrugged.

"Lots of evidence, too damn much actually, lots of DNA" I shrugged. "A pay by the hour hotel in that part of town..." Shaw nodded as I pressed on. "Lots of old DNA on the mattress and couch, it'll take a while to wade through it, fortunately the Crime Lab's people are picking up the slack on the analysis" Kate nodded thoughtfully.

"Anything of a more personal nature?" I nodded.

"We found clothing, all belonging to the girl; take out containers in the trash, two practically new toothbrushes in the bathroom, the usual toothpaste, soap and shampoo in there as well. They've all been sent to the lab with a rush tag so we should get something soon" Both chewed on that, thinking it through from all angles before Shaw finally spoke up.

"So it appears that the john left the premises rather quickly" I nodded then explained my reasoning.

"Figure he woke up early in the morning and found the girl sick and vomiting, tried to get her cleaned up, not realising that the suppressant had worn off, she died and he tried to dispose of the body out the window, before legging it" Kate frowned then spoke up.

"Not thinking too well obviously. He dumped her out the window; if he'd actually taken the time to put her body in the dumpster then we might not have found her at all, certainly not soon enough to prevent him cleaning up the room" She shook her head. "Leaving DNA evidence at the scene, figure he's someone who didn't have a clue" Shaw shook her head too as she replied.

"I doubt he was expecting what happened. He paid for an underage prostitute, not expecting her to die on him" I scowled, not caring that my voice carried my disgust.

"Bad enough he was screwing a young child, to throw the body out a window, this guy's a piece of work" They both nodded as we lapsed into silence. Finally Shaw leaned back in her chair and looked at us both.

"Let's consider what we know about the suspect" I nodded, leaning forward in the seat, flipping out my notebook and summarized the suspect in the lobby camera video.

"Caucasian male, forties, slim build, light brown hair, glasses" Kate looked over from where she sat back against the wall.

"Obviously he had to have access to a fair degree of money; I can't imagine that an underage prostitute that pretty comes cheap" She shrugged. "Not only would the price be high for something that's obviously a felony, but whoever's running the operation has a lot of costs to cover" Kate started ticking off the costs on her fingers. "Procuring the kids in the first place, obtaining documentation, flying them to the States, then looking after them here, they have to be fed and housed" I looked up from my notes and replied.

"The clothing the girl had, she had at least three sets, some of which must have been expensive" My mouth twisted in disgust at some of the 'clothing' left behind. "I mean, thigh-high patent-leather stiletto boots, for a 13 year old, that won't be cheap" Shaw nodded.

"Maybe a specialty order?" She shrugged. "It's worth a try" Kate and I both nodded distractedly, thinking hard before Kate spoke slowly, thinking it through.

"The room was extended, right?" She looked across to me, getting a confirmatory nod. "Let's assume that he wasn't aware of the time limit of the suppressant breaking down. He was having too much fun to stop, so he kept the girl there for another two days. He must have thought he'd just pay up and cover the extra time with the girls pimp, whoever they are" I nodded, continuing the conversation.

"That pimp must be so pissed, he's lost a substantial investment, he's likely to try and take it out of the john's hide" Shaw thought about it for a moment then spoke.

"Either the john knows something's wrong and he's gone into hiding from the pimp to avoid retribution, or he's bolted, called the pimp to tell him what's happened and the pimp's had him dealt with" I frowned as I though it through, then spoke.

"Or he's taken the loss out of the john, if he's wealthy enough, he may have been able to pay up enough to buy his way out of it" Kate frowned, her voice a lititle tentative.

"That's a lot of money we're talking about. I have no idea what a child prostitute costs, I suppose it's a few thousand a day. Maybe someone in Vice can tell us, but if we assume that the girl can work three or four days a week, that's potentially 8 or 10 thousand a week, possibly a lot more" Shaw grimaced at the numbers then picked up the thread.

"Buying your way out of that would cost; a lot, figure fifty thousand or more minimum" I thought about that for a moment, comparing what I knew from back in my Vice days all those years ago then made a suggestion.

"Not too many people can put that together in a hurry, not without leaving a trace" The ringing of Kate's phone interrupted me; it was Taylor from the crime lab.

"Hang on, I'll put you on speaker so everyone can hear" Kate said. "We're all here… Go ahead" Taylor's voice came through the speaker, a little tinny.

"We've managed to pull couple of print matches. Mostly hookers as you'd expect, a small time hustler, one guy done two decades ago for a DUI charge who copped a plea, he's kept his nose clean since. I'll get names and details emailed to you ASAP" Shaw leaned in towards the phone on the table and spoke.

"Any of them have anything that looks like a match for this crime?"

"No, nothing really, they all seem relatively clean, nothing like this one, hang on…" We could hear him thanking someone in the background. "Just got another set of partials identified, hang on" We could hear his voice in the backdrop before he came back on strong. "Oh shit…you're gonna love this" We swapped glances before I leaned forward and prompted him.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense"

"Prints taken from the toothpaste and toothbrush is a match for City Councilor Jason Syme" We all blinked at that before Kate spoke.

"Councilor Syme, as in the family values, law and order, I'm tough on crime Syme?" Taylor's voice carried the smile in his voice even through the phone's speaker.

"The same, got a positive match on left thumb, left forefinger and left middle finger from the toothpaste and the right index and thumb on the toothbrush" The was a pause as we all digested that before Taylor continued. "We'll see if we have his DNA in the system, if so we'll run a comparison" I nodded, seeing Shaw do the same, before speaking.

"We'll pick him up and have him in for a chat"


	10. Chapter 10

As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders, and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us.

 **Breaking Barriers Chapter 10**

 **O** **livia**

Kate was standing in front of a whiteboard marked up as a murder board when we got back; no surprises there, she'd always been partial to whiteboarding it out for as long as I'd known her. This one was starting to fill up with photos of the victim's and a timeline with notations for times of death and other information. She looked up as Shaw and I walked back in.

"No Syme?" We both shook our heads before I answered.

"No, he was supposed to have attended a political strategy meeting upstate all weekend, heading off Thursday morning according to his wife, but according to his secretary there was no such meeting" I shrugged as I recounted what we'd learned. "Syme rang the wife on Monday and told her he wasn't feeling well and would be taking the day off up there" Kate turned back to her board and made some notations on the timeline, standing back to look at her handiwork as she capped the marker, then indicated the board as she spoke.

"So our main suspect was off the grid for the period in question" She picked up Syme's DMV photo and pinned it to the board with a magnet. "He fits the surveillance camera footage" Shaw shrugged.

"So do lots of guys, but I agree he looks good for it" I nodded slowly, agreeing with her as I spoke.

"We have an APB out for him and his cars" At Kate's enquiring look I explained. "He has access to at least three. Two are missing, an Escalade and a BMW" Kate nodded.

"So he's good for money?" Shaw nodded, propping herself on a desk as she laid out what she'd got.

"I had his financials pulled, high point is he's worth a couple of million easily, more if you include assets like houses and land, both he and his wife are from wealthy families" At Kate's frown she paused. "What?"

"Any of those houses located outside of the city?" Kate said. At that question Shaw frowned and levered herself off the desk, already moving as she replied.

"Good question" She walked over to a file and flipped through it then looked up. "Yep, one upstate and another in the Hamptons, I'll get both checked by the local cops" Pulling out her cell she walked out of the room to make the call while I looked back at the whiteboard, reading the notations on the other victim before glancing over at Kate; maybe it was time to focus on the other vic?

"What have we got on the boy?" I said. Kate turned back to the board, tapping the vic's photo with the end of her whiteboard marker.

"Not much, Esposito's talking to Juvenile, trying to find any street kids who normally hang around that area. Ryan's chasing down the clothing he was wearing, no luck on either so far" As she spoke Esposito breezed in and flashed us a smile.

"Wouldn't say that just yet, beat cops heard about our enquiry and just called in a street name, Nick K. Hangs around a skate ramp down near the bridge" Kate smiled in return.

"We got a picture?" He smiled a bit wider as he answered.

"Juvenile's sending one up now" I stood.

"Let's go have a look, it beats sitting here" Waving at Shaw who was still on the phone and getting a nod in reply, Kate, Esposito and I headed out.

Two hours later we were sitting down in a coffee shop with Nick K, real name Nicolas Karahlis, watching him wolf down a large meal like his life depended on it. It probably did I thought sadly. He was a thin kid, his Greek heritage hidden under a cover of clothes and grime, I knew that SVU was hard, but Juvenile had its own problems, thank god I didn't work that beat. Kate was talking to him; she'd always been good with getting people to open up.

"Look Nick, like we said earlier, you're not a suspect, we know you didn't have anything to do with that boy's death, just tell us what you know, what you saw" The kid looked around at Kate and I, taking in Esposito sitting a few tables away nursing a coffee, then shrugged.

"Look, he wasn't one of us, he turned up two night's ago, weird accent right? Said he needed somewhere to crash, he was on the run from some guys who were pimping him out" Kate nodded, speaking encouragingly

"So you let him crash with you?" He shovelled some more food in, obviously hungry. I wondered when his last real meal had been, or his last shower, before he replied.

"Not at first, we don't got much, but he had some cash, said it was all he had, he handed it over to all of us, said it felt dirty" Kate and I shared a look before I asked the obvious question.

"Dirty, how, in what way I mean?" He shrugged.

"Said it was money the guy who'd paid for him gave him, extra cash in hand for doing stuff he liked" Nick looked uncomfortable at our enquiring looks, for all of his street tough persona he was still a skateboard-riding kid. "The guy liked some of the stuff the kid did, made him swallow, liked his moaning and screaming as he fucked his ass, pretty messed up shit, like" Kate nodded slowly, I could tell she was trying hard to hide her reaction as she coaxed him to keep going.

"Real messed up. So he hung with you for a while?" Nick nodded.

"Two nights, the night he arrived, we ate ok that night, used the money to buy some take out, been a while y'know" They both nodded. "The new kid, he looked clean, so he went in and ordered take out, paid for it with his money. Lotsa places, they won't take orders from street kids" Seeing Nick finish his Coke Kate motioned to the manager to bring another, getting a grateful nod from Nick.

"Thanks. Anyway, second night seemed ok, but he said he wasn't feeing too good. He got worse and started throwing up, said he was feeling cold, so we showed him a place out of the wind where he could sleep it off. Over a couple of hours we checked on him, he was getting worse, started moaning and tossing around, then I went to check on him and he was dead, covered in puke. Didn't know what he had, might have been catching y'know, so we booked out of there fast" Kate and I exchanged another look as the manager dropped another Coke at the table, along with a dirty look at the street kid befouling his diner. At a sharp glance from me though he backed off and went back to the counter as Kate spoke encouragingly.

"What can you tell us about him Nick, did he have a name?" He shrugged again.

"Said his name was Daniel, something like that, weird accent y'know?" Kate leaned forward a little and spoke quietly.

"Would that have been Daniil?" Nick looked at her and then nodded slowly.

"Maybe, like I said, weird accent" I nodded and spoke up.

"Did he tell you anything about whom his pimp was, who was running him?" Nick shook his head once.

"Just a guy, he didn't have a name, but there was a bunch of other kids there as well" Liv chewed her lip, they were getting closer…

"Do you have any idea how he came to be down there with you?" Nick shrugged as he continued shovelling food in.

"He was driven to a hotel, taken to a room by the driver. That night there'd been a fuck up, someone tripped up the driver as they were leaving afterwards, tripped over a pile of bags in the hotel foyer. The kid took his chance and bolted. Ran fast enough to get away and was looking for a place to hide when he found us" Kate nodded slowly.

"Did he tell you which hotel?" Nick shook his head again.

"Couple of blocks run, he didn't know his way round town much" I leaned forward to ask.

"Did you see anyone looking for Daniil?" Nick shook his head.

"Nope, but we keep a low profile, not like we're looking for trouble and shit, enough of it comes to us without us looking for more y'know" Kate and I both nodded at that before I spoke.

"Did you suggest he should talk to the police?" Nick gave a bitter snort then replied.

"Lady, we don't go looking for trouble, we get enough from the juvy cops without looking for any more" I pressed on.

"Not even though he was an underage kid being pimped out?" Nick gave a bitter laugh, one that didn't seem to fit well with a kid of probably 15.

"He ain't the first kid pro I've crossed paths with lady, probably won't be the last neither" Kate placed a gentle hand on my arm, a quiet message to back off. Nodding, I leaned back, letting Kate speak.

"Did Daniil give you any idea of where he and these other kids might have been held?" Nick shook his head once more as he looked at her.

"Nope, he rode in the car for about 30 minutes to the hotel, that's all I know"

We chatted to Nick for another twenty minutes, watching him finish his meal and another two cans of drink, before I walked him out as Kate payed for everything. While she did I looked down at Nick.

"If you think of anything else Nick, give me a call, or get a cop to call me, I'll come" I handed over my business card, plus almost a hundred in bills, all I had on me. He looked down at the cash and the card in his hand, then back up at me.

"Ok, but no promises" He said as I nodded once.

"None made, call me if you need me" He smiled and for a moment looked like a young kid again, then it was gone and the street rat who'd seen too much was back.

"Thanks for the food" With that he turned, dropped his board and skated away. I shook my head sadly and turned back to find Kate a few feet away watching. "I was just…" Kate nodded.

"I know Liv, I couldn't do Juvenile either, Homicide's bad enough, but kids… No"

"Yeah, me too"

We both turned to watch as Nick dissapeared around a corner.


	11. Chapter 11

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 11**

 **O** **livia**

Back at the 12th Kate and I filled Shaw in on what we'd learned before despatching officers to canvas each hotel for a six-block radius around the bridge Daniil had been found at, looking for surveillance footage that might show his escape.

Kate made a note on the whiteboard under the picture of Daniil's face taken during autopsy, his face had been cleaned up and he looked peaceful, probably for the first time in a long time, it'd taken his death to get him out of the clutches of whatever heartless son of a bitch had been pimping him out. We had a matching photo, still anonymous, of the young girl tossed out of the widow by Syme, the act of a gutless monster, bad enough to be having sex with them but to toss them out a window like trash? I shook my head, this job still found ways to get to me, even after all these years.

I was looking forward to a long talk with Syme; he had to have a name for the pimp, with that we could make real inroads on shutting them down and seeing them all rot in jail, where I was sure Syme would end up dead before too long. A 1-percenter sent to jail for screwing underage children, that would be like blood in the water to the prison system's sharks.

Shaw meanwhile had heard back from the local cops that neither of Councillor Syme's out of town residences were in use and had arranged for them to be kept under surveillance for a few days.

"That suggests that he's either got another bolt hole or that the pimp got to him" Shaw grimaced. "I suppose we'd better go and talk to the wife again, give her the bad news" She looked around at Kate and I. "Who wants it?"

The three of us looked at each other for a second then Kate held her fist out towards us as I half-smiled, remembering this from years ago when we'd worked together, holding my fist out as well as Shaw looked on, perplexed.

"What?" Kate grinned as she explained.

"Crap job right? Think of it as drawing straws; rock, paper, scissors, loser gets the job" Shaw thought about it for a beat and then nodded, holding her fist out, a small smile on her face.

Ten seconds later Kate, cursing her luck, was on her way out with Ryan, leaving Shaw and I smiling together before we sobered, turning back over Nick's evidence once again. An hour later she admitted that we didn't have a whole lot to go on, at least until they had more from the uniforms canvassing hotels in the area where Daniil met up with the street kids. We finally wandered into the break room for a coffee, giving me the chance to ask a question that had been nagging me since she'd showed up.

"How did you and Beckett meet?" Shaw shrugged as she responded, her tone neutral.

"Worked a case together involving a serial killer, managed to shut him down; a good thing too as they saved my life doing so, it's why I asked for this case when it popped up with Beckett's name on it, I owe her" I nodded, though I could sense there were a few things left unsaid. Shaw looked up from where she was stirring her cup and spoke, curiosity in her face.

"What about you, you've obviously worked together before" I turned and leaned back against the wall, thinking back as I spoke.

"We were both beat cops working in the same precinct; she was one of my rookies, learning the ropes. God, she was so green..." I smiled at some of the memories then shrugged. "I suppose all of us were too at her age I guess" Shaw nodded as I continued. "Anyway, I made detective a couple of years later, Kate went into robbery then homicide, I went into vice then SVU. We kinda lost track of each other for a few years then caught up again a few months back. We've kept in touch since" She nodded and tossed the stirrer stick into the bin then followed up with a question.

"What do you think of Castle?" I frowned at the question, Castle?

"Rick? Great guy, best thing that ever happened to her, he loves her like crazy and she's the same, completely changed her life, gave her a life outside the job" Shaw's eyebrow lifted as she spoke.

"The same as you?" I looked up from my coffee, surprised.

"What?" Shaw smiled.

"I checked your file when your name appeared in this case. It's a damned thick one; for the life of me I can't understand why you haven't been promoted beyond Detective Sergeant given your success rate" I looked down at my cup, a little embarrassed at her comment as she continued on. "Anyway, it'd be hard to miss your connection to Alex Cabot, one of the city's top DA's. Everything points to her being the best thing to ever happen to you too" I nodded slowly, how to explain the most important person in my life...

"Yeah, she is, gave me hope of a life beyond the job, just like Rick and Kate" Shaw nodded as I took the opening offered. "What about you, I saw the ring" Shaw shrugged.

"I've got a good man and a beautiful daughter, they help keep me sane" Before either of us could say anything more Esposito stuck his head round the corner.

"Just got a call, they found Councillor Syme" As we started to speak he held up his hand. "They found his mangled body in a dumpster in an alley in Queens, looks like he was beaten to death"

Shaw and I exchanged a look and the same thought, ' _so much for that lead'_ '.


	12. Chapter 12

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 12**

 **O** **livia**

We stood around the autopsy table in the Crime Lab's autopsy suite, watching as Lanie Parish and Melinda shared the examination of Syme's horribly bruised and mangled body. Finally Lanie looked up and gave us the summary.

"There may be a bone in this man's body they didn't break but if there is we haven't found it yet" Melinda nodded and continued.

"Lots of blunt force trauma here, I mean a real lot, a pipe possibly or maybe a baseball bat, it would have taken someone pretty strong to do this too, a significant amount of the victim's muscle tissue's been pulverised by the impact" Shaw and Kate winced at the description, Darville and Taylor were impassive while I thought it an appropriate ending for someone who screwed 13 year-old prostitutes. Melinda shook her head slowly then continued. "They worked over his limbs first, then his pelvis, spine, shoulders and ribs before they got to his head" Kate shook her head slowly then asked what I'd been thinking.

"So he was alive during the beating?" Lanie nodded.

The lividity suggests that there was still blood flow throughout the beating" She indicated a series of obvious divits in Syme's skull. "It was only these cranial impacts that killed him" Mac Taylor leaned back against a cabinet next to Jo Darville, considering the evidence then spoke up.

"It would have taken some time to do a job like this, so whoever did work him over had to have done it him somewhere they wouldn't be disturbed" He looked across at the two MEs. "Do you have any idea of time of death?" Lanie and Melinda shared a look and a glance at Jo before Lanie nodded and Melinda answered.

"Probably early hours of this morning, between midnight and five's our best guess" Shaw looked up from his corpse, her voice sharp.

"Guess?" Melinda shrugged, unrepentant as Jo answered that one on behalf of her fellow Medical Examiners.

"The damage to the organs was so severe that a lot of the normal signs that tell time of death aren't usable" Lanie jumped in on that as well.

"It's a bit hard getting a time of death from a liver that's been beaten into a squishy liquid paste" I swallowed at her all-too-vivid imagery as Jo took up the thread again.

"Exactly, the victim died somewhere in that window, but he was probably beaten like that for a while before it" Shaw looked like she was going to argue the point so I stepped in with a summary.

"So the pimp got him, either he found him or Syme contacted him to buy his way out of it, unsuccessfully as it turned out" Kate nodded and chimed in.

"Talking to the wife, she had no idea, thought he was the dutiful husband" She said. "Had absolutely no idea he was into little girls. They have two of their own by the way, plus a young son" Taylor visibly shuddered then asked what we were all thinking.

"We're they…" Kate shrugged; her face a grim mask. Everyone was silent as we contemplated the wife's worst nightmare, inside the family home, just down the hall from their children, her husband murdered; then she learns he was a paedophile; maybe her kids weren't safe either...

"Mrs Syme is getting them checked by a doctor, fingers crossed" Kate paused as Shaw's phone rang, dragging them out of their reverie. They listened in for a moment to her end of the conversation, the Bureau had been chasing down Syme's financial statements, it seemed like they'd turned up something. Ending the call Shaw turned back to the group and explained the other end of the conversation we'd partly heard.

"Financials for Syme show he made a number of withdrawals in recent days, totalling around twenty thousand dollars. He then made a significant withdrawal yesterday afternoon" Pre-empting their questions she shrugged. "A total of one hundred thousand dollars in cash, from a half a dozen separate accounts" Mac Taylor whistled.

"That's a lot of cash" Kate nodded and said what I was thinking.

"Not enough it seems" Shaw sighed then took up the thread.

"Looks like he tried to buy his way out, but it wasn't enough" I shrugged and chimed in.

"I'm not surprised" At their looks I went on, relating some info a phone call I'd made had dug up. "I chatted to some of my old contacts in Vice; the going rate for a child prostitute as young and pretty as our vic is five thousand a night, maybe more" Mac Taylor was the first to get over his surprise to comment.

"No wonder a hundred grand wasn't enough to buy his way out, the pimp's probably making that or more each month" He shook his head then continued. "So it looks like he took Syme's money then took the rest out of Syme in blood" Lanie shrugged and spoke.

"There's a lot of anger here, this beating took time and patience, whoever did it wanted to make him pay" Shaw looked over at her.

"No other forensic evidence?" Jo Darville shook her head; Lanie rolled her eyes and Melinda's mouth quirked before she answered.

"Too damn much actually. The body was tossed into a dumpster behind an Asian restaurant; it was full of scraps so the body's contaminated by a vast array of foodstuffs, condiments, spices and the like. Chances of getting anything usable and relevant is pretty much zero" Lanie nodded, adding her commentary.

"I don't know if it was luck or good planning, but if crooks start tossing bodies into restaurant dumpsters more often it's gonna make forensic evidence pretty much useless" Everyone in the room grimaced at that, given how essential the leads forensics turned up were to successful cases, they could only hope it was dumb luck on the pimp's part. Finally I looked round the room and spoke up.

"So what now?" Mac shrugged, looking down at Syme's tortured body.

"Hope to hell we turn up something from the canvas of local hotel security videos, or we find Syme's missing cars in the hope they lead us somewhere" Kate grimaced and summed it up.

"Almost back to where we started"


	13. Chapter 13

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 13**

 **O** **livia**

We were chasing our tails to no good purpose, sitting on Kate's desk in the precinct staring at her murder board. It was gradually filling up with details. We had a possible name for the dead boy, Daniil; nothing on the girl yet though, a lot of suppositions but unfortunately not much in the way of hard facts.

We'd finally managed to track down which hotel Daniil, if that was his actual name, had managed to escape from; we had surveillance camera footage showing the incident which I'd watched three times now and it had gone down pretty much as Nick had described it. In the footage we could see an adult holding the boy by the arm until the man went down in a heap when a trolley load of bags got pushed the wrong way. In the seconds that he was on the floor Daniil had looked around, then bolted; before the guy could stand the boy was long gone.

We had some vision from the hotel entrance showing a black Porsche Cayenne he'd arrived in parked on the driveway. The 12th Precinct's in-house computer wizz, a slim, pretty brunette named Tori Ellis, was attempting to perform miracles to try and get a clear licence plate image from what was, to my eye, a mess of pixels.

The picture of the driver now rested on the board, he was heavy set, dark haired, wearing shades despite the late evening and dressed in a dark suit with a red and blue tie, basically a shaved ape in a suit, his image practically screamed 'professional thug'.

As we desultorily talked, waiting on Tori I looked up at the sound of a very welcome voice to see Alex walking our way, drawing a smile from me as she always did. She was wearing a tailored blue pinstripe skirt suit and three-inch heeled black pumps and looked wonderful; I hadn't expected to see her until I got home at whatever god-forsaken hour we wrapped for the night, having her here was a real treat. Alex stepped up to me and leaned in for a quick but deep kiss before stepping back with a smile as I noticed she was carrying several bulging white plastic bags which she summararily dumped on the table.

"Hi Liv, I thought I'd bring some dinner, I doubt any of you have eaten" I felt a warm thrill run through me, Alex was being her usual thoughtful self and I loved her for it, I sometimes wonder what I did to deserve someone as amazing as her. Realising the others were still sitting there I turned to make some introductions.

"Alex, you're a sight for sore eyes and empty stomachs" I smiled and turned. "This is my partner, Alex Cabot. Alex; Special Agent Jordan Shaw of the FBI…" They shook hands with a smile before Alex and Kate exchanged a quick hug and smiles. They'd bonded over a very long night in Castle's bar, the Old Haunt, with a group of friends and friends of friends, over plenty of drinks, stories and karaoke. Since then we'd had several dinner's with Kate and Castle in his loft and they'd been to our place for dinner a few times, plus we'd shared a great weekend at Castle's house in the Hampton, we were well past the 'just friends' stage with them.

"Lovely to see you again Kate, nice to meet you Agent Shaw"

Please, Counsellor, my name's Jordan" Alex just smiled.

"Jordan, it's Alex and if you lot are anything like the usual group Liv hangs out with in SVU then I'll bet none of you have eaten" I smiled, a little ruefully as I chanced a quick look at my watch, it was almost eight and she was right, we hadn't eaten. Kate grinned.

"Got it in one Counsellor, I was thinking we should look at Thai but I got distracted…" Alex nodded with a cheeky grin as she held up the bags.

"Thought so, I brought a selection of Italian from a great deli we know. It's not home-made but it's pretty close" We headed into the break room and dived in to what was some really good Italian, my ravioli was great. For the next 30 minutes the conversation was light, most of us talking about some of the sillier things we'd investigated. Kate had a nice collection of stories from her time partnering with Castle, Shaw had a few good ones and Alex had us in stitches describing some of the antics of judges and defence attorneys. I just sat back and let them flow, Alex had heard my stories and most of the stuff SVU dealt with wasn't all that funny anyway.

Finishing it up, we walked Alex through what little we knew about the case. She asked some interesting questions, which helped clarify the timeline a little better; her ordered prosecutors mind at work. We were just sitting there, drinking some fresh-brewed coffee, espresso, much to Alex's delight, when Tori walked out with a smile on her face and an image in her hand; apparently she'd managed to extract a decent image and could pass on the licence number.

Thirty seconds later she'd been introduced to Alex and was eagerly sitting down to some divine Fettuccine while we gathered around Kate's computer as we called up the NYPD database, the licence was registered to an Amalgamated Overseas Imports Agencies, with a post office box address in lower Manhattan.

Ten minutes of digging found out that Amalgamated Overseas Imports Agencies was a shell company based in the Cayman Islands and was a dead end. We were kicking it around when Alex got a thoughtful expression I recognised. I moved to lean up against the desk next to her and leaned in close, speaking quietly just for her.

"What's up Angel?" I got a smirk at my use of her pet name.

"Just a thought, but I looked at getting a Porsche a few years ago" She shrugged. "In the end I didn't, but I looked at the Cayenne. One of the reasons I didn't was the service costs were bad for a car I wouldn't be driving all that often" I nodded. That was true of a lot of high end cars. For all her access to money Alex was pretty frugal, except when it came to clothes. It was one of the reasons she still drove a six-year old Audi rather than something newer. Alex was still speaking. "That's partly because they really only ever get serviced at dealers or a couple of authorised service centres here on the island" I thought about that as she continued. "You normally have to give a contact number, usually a mobile, when you check in" I sat back, feeling the light bulb go off over my head. Turning, I leaned in to give her a quick kiss.

"I think you're in the wrong profession, maybe it should be Detective Cabot?" She smiled, a little wickedly, before leaning in close to whisper.

"Only if I get to use the handcuffs Tiger" Alex leaned back with a grin, one I matched before I replied, keeping my voice low.

"Didn't stop you last time" I got a slight blush as she looked down, before I turned back to the others who were still talking about the case.

"Guys…" They brought their attention to me. "Alex just pointed out there's only a few places you can get a Cayenne serviced on the island and most need at least a contact number to ring" I saw eyes narrow and heads nod as they got it, before finally Kate spoke up.

"We'll get a list of service places from Porsche and get uniforms canvassing them…" She looked at her watch. "…tomorrow" I nodded as Shaw stood up and stretched.

"Let's get a good night's sleep and reconvene tomorrow" I stood as did Kate and Alex as I reached for her hand.

"C'mon Angel, lets go home" Kate strolled past with a smirk on her face.

"Remember, a good night's sleep Alex, so don't keep Liv up all night" I got a raised eyebrow from Shaw as Kate and Alex's laughter filled the room.


	14. Chapter 14

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 14**

 **O** **livia**

Next morning the canvas of Porsche dealers and repair shops was in full swing. Kate was managing that while Shaw was dealing with Immigration and Homeland Security over the guy in the hotel lobby footage. I didn't think much would come of it, the imagery wasn't all that clear but we had to check, it's what cops, or in this case the Bureau, did. It was mind-numbingly boring, tedious and very occasionally case-cracking, so it had to be done.

I was working with hotel security trying to find which room Daniil had been in however we hadn't managed to do much better than confirming which floor. There were 42 rooms on that floor and we'd managed to narrow it down to 24 possible rooms based on the direction they'd taken from the lifts. I was spending the morning going through the guest's names, looking for cross matches on the sex offenders list without much luck.

Given the prices changed, it wasn't likely to be anyone on our lists, instead someone with money and resources who could afford to pay the pimp's prices and stay away from the streets. That led me to wonder how the customer's got in touch with the pimps in the first place. Was it word of mouth or maybe some anonymous chat site? I made a note to talk to vice again and see what they could tell us. A couple of minutes later Shaw walked back in with a satisfied expression on her face. At my unspoken question she smiled.

"Got a hit on the Cayenne driver; Vitaly Yerlov, or at least that's what his passport claimed. The real name is Pavel Elkin. A former enforcer for the Russian mob, he came through on a tourist visa under the Yerlov name about eleven months ago, direct flight from St Petersburg" I nodded slowly as I thought it over for a moment then replied.

"Interesting" Shaw sat on the edge of my borrowed desk and nodded before continuing.

"Very, it gets better too" I looked up in interest. "I did some cross-checking and he arrived on a flight with two unaccompanied minors. I have my people looking at JFK surveillance footage around their arrival time to see what we can see about who may have met him and the two kids" I nodded once as I replied.

"Good, God I hope we find something, these people have covered their tracks pretty well, up to this point" Shaw smiled reassuringly.

"Only to a point, once we start pulling at the loose ends we'll start to unravel it though, one thread at a time" We discussed the possible Russian mob connection for a while when Kate strode in, Esposito and Ryan with her, they were back sooner than I'd expected so I asked the obvious question.

"How'd you go?" She smiled as Ryan jumped onto his computer, Esposito looking over his shoulder.

"Bingo, found them at the third dealer we hit up. We got a number for a mobile so we're just running it down" Shaw looked pensive.

"It'll probably be a burner phone" Kate just grinned, she knew something; I recognised that look, something her next words confirmed.

"Maybe, but he was using a high-end smartphone, played Angry Birds the whole time he was there" I glanced up at Shaw and we both nodded in agreement before Shaw spoke.

"Doesn't sound like a cheap burner to me" Ryan looked up from his computer and called out.

"The phone was sold to a Piotr Velikyi" Kate's head swung round at that.

"Peter the Great in Russian, definitely an alias" Esposito moved to his desk and was working on any GPS coordinates matching the phone, Kate turned to me as he worked.

"Liv, can you get Alex to pop for a search warrant, once we have a location?" I nodded, thinking all the pro's and con's through, something all those years sparring with Alex over warrants had taught me, then spoke up.

"Should be easy, we have an evidence trail that should satisfy most judges" Kate nodded as well.

"Get her to try Judge Markwell if she can" She said. "He's usually pretty accommodating on warrants"

"Bingo!" It was Esposito. "A building in the Garment district down on West 37th Street" Ryan was working another computer, digging into databases. With a smile he sat back.

"City records say that building's tenanted by Emporium International Trade Holdings and guess where they're based?" He swung the monitor round to face us, I read it and smiled.

"The Caymans" Kate nodded as a smile broke out.

"Nice, I'm seeing a trend here" She looked at me. "Can you get us that warrant?" I nodded, pulling out my phone and speed dialling Alex while Kate was ringing Mac Taylor at the Crime Lab to get him to pick up the warrant on the way.

It wasn't much but it was a lot more than we had before.


	15. Chapter 15

I'd just like to acknowledge the actors who bring these characters to life for us, Mariska Hargitay, Stana Katic, Dana Delaney, Gary Sinise, Stephanie March and all the others.

Thank you for the inspiration to write.

 **Breaking Barriers Chapter 15**

 **Olivia**

Two hours later we stood backed up against a wall on West 37th Street; Shaw, Kate, Taylor and I, backed up by Esposito, Ryan, a couple of FBI agents and some uniforms diverting pedestrians away. Ryan came up on the radio from where he and Esposito were covering the back with some more uniforms, confirming that the Cayenne was parked in the rear of the building. We exchanged looks and drew our weapons as we formed up for entry.

I was about to get the door kicked in when Shaw held up a finger, reaching into her tactical vest to pull out a set of lock picks and kneeling at the front door. I looked up to see Kate and Taylor raising their eyebrows, before their eyes met mine as I gave a shrug.

30 seconds later Shaw stepped back and smiled as the door silently swung open and we moved in, fanning out. The building was a four-story former small-scale garment factory; the ground floor only partially refurbished, with an electric jug, microwave, toaster and some other gear on a table by the sink on the wall, with light and voices coming from the second floor.

As we spread out across the ground floor, it became apparent that the floor was empty. I turned and caught Kate's eye as I nodded towards the stairs. Pausing at the bottom I looked down to see brick steps; good, no chance of creaking. As I started slowly up them I could sense Kate close behind me, she had my back again, just like back in the old days.

Taking the steps carefully, my eyes lifted above floor level into a hallway to see light spilling from several doorways. I stepped up and out onto the floor, making room for the others.

Kate stepped to the left and Taylor moved to my right as we slowly made our way down the corridor, I could feel the sweat running under my tactical bulletproof vest, it was heavy and hot and I was grateful for its weight. Sliding along the wall I moved to the first open door and carefully peeked around the corner to see two guys sitting at a table, obviously playing cards. The rest of the room seemed empty.

Ducking back I held up two fingers for the others, seeing Shaw and her agents together with several uniforms making their way up out of the stairs. I pointed to Taylor and Shaw and indicated doors further along with light spilling from them, Shaw, her agents and Taylor plus a uniform moved quickly past us before I pointed at the remaining uniformed cops and motioned them closer. I held up one hand, pointing inside the door and held up two fingers, getting nods of understanding from everyone, then once again held up my hand, fisted this time and then raised three fingers, catching everyone's eyes, before slowly, folding them down one by one, counting us down.

Three: ' _Fuck I hope they don't try and do something stupid…_ '.

Two: ' _Here goes, get ready to step through the door_ '.

One: ' _Oh god_ '. The pistol heavy in my hand, I raise it and go through the door, yelling.

" **POLICE, HANDS IN THE AIR NOW!** " I kept moving; stepping to the right and out of the door, making way for Kate and the uni's behind me. They were shouting as well.

" **DROP THE WEAPONS!** "

" **POLICE!** "

" **NYPD! HANDS IN THE AIR!** "

In one of those segments when time slows I could see their heads swivel, as one stood and swung a pistol towards me, the other grabbing for an Uzi.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck" It was a mantra as I swung my pistol towards the guy with the Uzi, the other guy might get a shot off, maybe two, the Uzi could hose us all.

Two shots rang out as one, Kate and I'd both fired at the same target, mine hit centre mass near the heart and left lung, Kate, always the show-off, had gone for the head, blowing half his head off in a nasty spray of blood and brains, he was dead before his body hit the floor.

My ears rang as a bullet just missed my head and slammed into the wall next to me, the pistol guy had fired and missed; for a split second I was disorientated as a fusillade of shots rang out. At least three shots from the uniforms, two hit; one in the groin and the other in the shoulder, blowing him off his feet and sending his pistol flying across the floor. Kate was swinging her weapon from side to side, scanning the room as she called to me.

"Liv, you ok?"

"Yeah, missed me thank god" The other cops started moving forward as shouts and a couple of shots rang out from further down the corridor. I heard a girl's high-pitched scream, suddenly cut off, then more shots.

The shots died down as cries of 'Clear' rang out, cops fanning out across the floor and onto the upper floors.

I moved over to the second guy and looked down, then turned, grabbing the radio and calling for an ambulance though he probably wouldn't last that long, the shot to the groin had maybe severed an artery; there was a huge amount of blood everywhere. I'd heard shots and screams from outside so others were injured too. I saw two uniforms begin first aid as I turned and ran out, looking for Taylor and Shaw.

We found them in different rooms further down the corridor. Taylor and a uniformed cop were standing there staring down at a young girl with half her head missing. A close range pistol shot had killed her.

I could see a man lying sprawled on the floor, at least two shots in his torso and another in the side of his head. It was Elkin; his corpse was sprawled over the body of another child, a boy maybe 14 missing the back of his head. Taylor looked up at me and shook his head as he spoke, his voice full of pain.

"When you moved in, we kicked in the first two doors, but he'd already shot the girl and had his gun pointed at the boy. We shot but he was faster, the boy died instantly"

"Oh god I'm sorry" It was pretty pathetic but it was the best I could come up with, Taylor looked devastated as Kate walked up from where I hadn't seen her behind me and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Mac, you couldn't have stopped him, he must have wanted to make sure the kids couldn't talk"

Taylor looked pretty shaken, much like the rest of us. I was about to say something more when I heard the sound of a distraught child through the door. I ducked back out of the room to see Shaw walking out of another room cradling another young girl who was sobbing uncontrollably into her shoulder.

Looking up at me she raised an eyebrow, sadly I shook my head, getting a tightening around her eyes before she turned back to the young girl, holding her close and pouring soothing words into the girl's ear as she bawled her eyes out into the shoulder of Jordan's tailored jacket.

I looked at Kate as we shared a single thought, ' _what a monumental fuck up_ '

The surviving suspect bled out before the EMTs could get to him.


	16. Chapter 16

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 16**

 **O** **livia**

We were sitting behind the one-way glass in the observation room of the 12th precinct's interrogation room. Inside it Kate was talking to the young girl we'd rescued from the Russian mobsters. We'd immediately got her checked over by the EMT's and got blood taken for analysis, though everyone was pretty sure what we'd find.

Kate spoke some Russian so she was talking to the girl, Ilyana Rogov. While Ilyana had picked up some English in the last year, Kate's Russian was much better than her English. So far we'd learned she was 14, had been here for over a year and was psychologically very seriously messed up. She was freaked out by the sight of men, especially older men in suits, so Mac Taylor had hung back

She was a pretty young thing, Nordic blond hair, bright blue eyes, a pale complexion that hadn't seen the sun in a long time and the pathetic remnants of a fragile childhood that over a year of being pimped out to perverted old men with twisted desires had left her desperately clinging to.

I was standing there with Jordan and Mac looking through the mirror as Kate helped her work with a sketch artist to build up an image of the man behind the operation. She'd confirmed a man had turned up every four or five days and made her drink 'medicine'. The last dose had been administered four days and three clients ago.

We were still running databases looking for hits on the other two dead mobsters but nothing yet. Almost certainly they had come into the country the same way as the late and unlamented Pavel Elkin had, under a false identity. We kicked it round for a while until Mac had a bright idea.

"We know that Elkin came in on the same flight as some of the kids, try cross-referencing with flights from Russia that included unaccompanied kids" Jordan nodded.

"Makes sense, after losing those two kids on that diverted flight he probably didn't want to take chances. Ensure each flight has one of his people on board in case anything happens" She chewed her lip for a moment before continuing. "I'll get Immigration to provide a list of unaccompanied children inbound from Russia for the last two years and see how many we're looking at" She pulled out her phone and moved to a far corner to make the call to Washington.

Mac and I stood there watching Kate work with Ilyana and the sketch artist, she'd already told us she knew of at least three other kids who we hadn't accounted for, in addition to Gregoryi and Natalia who had died in the warehouse and Daniil and Ludmilla, the two dead kids who had got our investigation started, we were looking for Nikolai, Talia and Svetlana, there may have been others but they were all Ilyana knew of. I scrubbed my face; this case was turning into a nightmare.

"Jesus this sucks" Mac nodded at my muttered comment.

"Yeah, this case just gets worse all the time. Everytime we get anywhere it just gets bigger and uglier" I nodded slowly and glanced his way before turning to look back through the glass to Kate and Ilyana as I spoke quietly.

"Yeah, a large-scale, high-end pedophile prostitution ring operating right under our noses for more than a year, servicing a rich A-List clientele and no one had a clue" I shook my head. "There's going to be some awkward questions asked of Vice about this" Mac cocked his eyebrow at me as he spoke.

"It's already started" Surprised I glanced his way as he continued. "The brass apparently seriously chewed the asses of vice's senior officers earlier this morning, called them in to 1PP and demanded answers no one had" His mouth twisted into a sardonic smile. "Not one of their better moments so that's why we're being left alone to run this, Vice hasn't got a clue" He smiled, a touch bitterly. "Who says no good deed goes unpunished?" I smiled, more than a little bitter myself. I knew what he was saying. On one hand it meant that it was our case to run, on the other that the brass was looking over our shoulder waiting to come down on us if we stuffed it up. If we wrapped it up, the brass would take the credit; if it turned to shit we'd be hung out to dry. I looked across at him; he'd had a rough day too.

"How you doing Mac?" He looked up, a trace of how really he felt flashed there for a moment, then was buried again, hidden under the professionalism,

"I've had better days" I moved over and stood near him.

"You didn't have a choice, he would have killed Illyana too and you if you'd let him" He shrugged.

"If I'd been faster…" I reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"You were as fast as you could be, they sure as hell had no hesitation in shooting cops, if you'd been any slower then he might have got you too" He looked back out through the window at Illyana.

"Doesn't make it any easier" I just nodded, knowing how he felt.

"It never does, but it's all we've got" Jordan wandered back in, her call complete, to fill us in.

"Got people working trying to cross reference our dead bodies with unaccompanied kids, we'll see what shakes loose" Mac looked up and nodded then asked.

"You're a profiler, what's your take on the guy behind this?" Interested, I turned to listen as she replied; her voice a little slower as she ordered her thoughts then laid them out for us.

"Borderline psychopath, little to no empathy for others, intelligent, ruthless, amoral, well organised and financially well-backed, everything we've seen suggests that serious money was spent to set this up initially" She shrugged. "I'm still putting a profile together but everything we're seeing suggests someone who acts with none of the moral qualms that normal individuals have. Definitely a loner, probably has difficulty establishing close relations with others, can be superficially charming but sees everyone around them as tools to be used to get what they want" I grimaced.

"Wonderful, we're dealing with a Bond villain" I got a slight smile from Mac as Jordan nodded and smiled.

"Not a bad approximation actually, I'll let my people know we're looking for a man stroking a white cat" Mac nodded as he spoke.

"Tell them to keep an eye out for sharks with lasers" I smiled a little too, anything to try and keep our sense of perspective was welcome. Mac's phone rang and he stepped away to take it as Jordan and I watched Kate work with Ilyana. A quick conversation later Mac finished and turned to us.

"Two things, one expected, one not" We turned to look at him. "The girl, Ilyana; her blood tests positive for the toxin, as does that of all the other kids" I nodded as I struggled to remain impassive even though I felt like crying; 'O _h God there are days I hate my job_ '.

Mac looked between the two of us and continued. "So does the blood work on the three dead Russian mobsters" Jordan shook her head slowly as our eyes drifted back to Ilyana as Jordan spoke up.

"Careful bastard, isn't he? Doses the kids and his employees" I nodded, taking a deep breath and speaking, hopefully sounding relatively normal.

"Like you said, a Bond villain, it sure fits your profile, he obviously believes dead people tell no tales" We were silent for a while, I expect we were all grappling with the mindset of whoever we were dealing with here. Finally I asked the question I was afraid of. "Any hope with getting an antidote?" Mac just grimaced; the pain in his eyes brutally raw. I recognised it, I could see it in Jordan's eyes and I felt it like a knife in the guts.

"Not enough time, nowhere near enough. We need a sample of the suppressant so we can try and analyse it and synthesise more" I stared into the room, looking at a pretty young thing who had only a day or so left to live.

Kate was working with her, Ilyana sitting by her side, making the little girl smile, trying to get her to laugh. The thought came to me she'd make a wonderful mom, maybe she and Castle… I paused as a thought hit me.

"Why did he shoot both kids, they were going to die anyway?" Mac and Shaw shared a glance before Shaw spoke, her voice slow as she thought aloud.

"They don't know, about the poison I mean. He must have thought he had to silence them, not knowing they were going to die and him with them" I nodded as Mac spoke up.

"Ruthless and amoral didn't you say?" He shook his head. "That's not the half of it" I frowned as I spoke.

"This guy's a psycho, a psycho with a bunch more kids still out there"

"We need to catch the bastard soon" It was Mac. Jordan looked up.

"Maybe, maybe not" I looked around at her tone.

"What?" She shrugged.

"The poison came from the KGB originally. Why don't we go and ask them?" I just cocked my head at her as Mac spoke.

"You have the address of your local neighbourhood KGB spy?" She just smiled a little wistfully.

"As a matter of fact, I do. Want to come?" I levered myself off the wall.

"Shit yes"


	17. Chapter 17

**Breaking** **Barriers Chapter 17**

 **Olivia**

One phone call and a bit over two hours later we were being shown into the office of the cultural attaché in the Russian Consulate on East 91st Street. Jordan had explained to us that after the wall fell a lot of the old Soviet institutions fell over as well. The KGB's internal security had been renamed the FSB while their external spying operations were renamed the SVR. Despite the name changes the reality was that it was still the same old KGB underneath it all.

Stepan Belinsky was officially a cultural attaché, but was actually the senior SVR officer in New York. It all sounded like something from a cold war thriller but apparently the FBI was aware of his real job almost as soon as he had arrived. He didn't actually run Russia's spies in New York and at the UN; he simply controlled the actions of other, better hidden SVR agents who did.

He was a medium tall man, dark haired, brown eyes, with excellent, unaccented English, nothing really remarkable about him, which I supposed was helpful for a spy. He stood and shook hands with each of us, saw us seated in chairs in front of his desk and offered Russian tea, which was politely declined. Looking around I saw a picture of Vladimir Putin on the wall, a man who'd been a KGB agent before climbing the political ladder after the Berlin Wall fell, highlighting exactly where the power lay in today's Russia. With the pleasantries out of the way Belinsky came to the point.

"So Agent Shaw, I was intrigued to receive a request from the FBI to meet; now you are here with three members of the New York Police Department. You must forgive me my curiosity but may I ask the nature of your business here today?" Jordan was equally polite.

"Attaché Belinsky, thank you for agreeing to meet with us on short notice. We are here because we are investigating a number of crimes that have a common thread running through them. That thread is the use of a coercive poison that once administered requires the regular administration of a suppressant, without which the victim will die" Belinsky was unfazed.

"And exactly how is this of concern of the Russian Federation?" Jordan was equally polite.

"The poison is one that has been previously encountered, it was used by the precursor to the SVR, the old KGB" Belinsky nodded slowly.

"Many things were done in the old days, which are not now, I can assure you that the SVR does not use such things today" He paused then continued. "Or so I am told" Jordan nodded.

"No one is accusing the SVR of involvement in these matters. However it appears criminal elements with ties to Russian organised crime have obtained access to this poison and are using it. In particular on children" Belinsky certainly looked disgusted as he spoke.

"Unfortunately those gangsters have no morals and fewer qualms about what methods they may use"

"Exactly" Jordan leaned forward in her chair. "We would ask for your co-operation in obtaining the formula for the suppressant so it can be administered to the children who have been poisoned" He sat back.

"I would like to help you. I will forward a request to Moscow and ask if they have retained such knowledge. If they have, I will ask them to make it available to you" Jordan frowned.

"If they have retained..? Surely you're joking?" Belinsky leaned back.

"Whatever do you mean Agent Shaw?"

"We both know that the SVR still has both formulas, your people never throw anything out" He smiled.

"Much was lost in the tumultuous period of the early 1990s" He shrugged. "That was one of the things lost" I picked up that where he was saying it may have been retained; now he was stating it was lost. I wasn't the only one to pick up on it either; Kate and Mac were both leaning forward, while Jordan was trying to remain calm. I knew I should sit back and say nothing but leaned forward to speak, when Kate beat me to it.

"We have a victim, a child, who's been poisoned and needs the suppressant soon" Belinsky opened his hands in a 'helpless' gesture.

"As I said, I will forward your request to my superiors. It will then be a matter for them to determine. Beyond that I am unable to help you" I was pissed; the anger rushing through me. This creep with his nice suit and dispassionate attitude was basically blowing us off as Kate continued.

"We have four dead children, four dead Russian children here in New York. Now there's a fifth child who is going to die without help. They were all carrying the poison; now we need the suppressant to give this child a chance to live. Doesn't that mean anything?"

"Regrettably detective, I am unable to help you" I flicked a glance to the others, Kate was appalled, Mac's face was a rigid mask while Jordan was struggling to keep her cool. Finally Mac spoke; I could hear the barely-controlled anger and disbelief in his voice.

"God damn it, this is a 14-year old Russian girl we're trying to save, doesn't that mean anything to you?" He leaned back and steepled his fingers.

"Regrettably, children die every day, some by accident, some from disease, others through tragedy. It would seem that this young child's death will be one of the latter" He shrugged. "I am sorry" I found myself on my feet, fists balled.

"You're sorry. You're condemning a 14-year old girl to a painful, slow death and you're sorry?" He made a 'whatever' gesture with his hands.

"That is a matter for the FBI and the New York Police, not the Russian Federation. Perhaps you should direct your efforts to solving the problem here in New York, rather than wasting my time. This meeting is at an end" I took a step forward, for a split second regretting we had been forced to hand over our weapons when we'd entered the Consulate.

"You might think so, but this isn't over, not by a long shot" He raised an eyebrow at me, almost daring me to speak. "New York's a dangerous place, accidents can happen anywhere, at any time, to anyone. Maybe you should remember that" Kate was standing next to me, her hand on my shoulder.

"Liv, I think we should go" I ignored her.

"I'm a detective, we're all cops, we know every day brings new deaths, something you should remember for as long as you're in New York, however long that may be" Belinsky shot to his feet.

"Are you threatening me Detective?" I was about to lay into him when Mac's voice cut through and I felt my arm being grabbed.

"That's enough Benson, damn it, that's enough!" I looked at him, seeing his hand gripping my arm. "We're finished here" I stared at him, before looking down at his hand again. He let go and I turned to the door, before looking back at Belinsky over my shoulder.

"Fine, we're finished here, but this isn't over, not by a long shot" With that I walked to the door and left the room. No words were exchanged until we were outside the Consulate; we stood there for a moment before Mac spoke.

"Benson, what the hell were you doing in there?" I scowled and turned on him, my anger still simmering and he was a convenient target.

"That prick was never going to help us; for fuck's sake Mac, he was just blowing us off. Ilyana's life meant nothing to him" I could tell he was still pissed, well that made two of us.

"You don't threaten a foreign diplomat, not without repercussions. I don't want you suspended because you can't keep it together, you understand me?" I slowly nodded at Mac's words as Kate's phone went off. Jordan stood there, looking at me before nodding.

"He was lying, he has no intention of helping us" I stood there, appalled, finally managing to get a question out.

"But why?" She shrugged

"He doesn't want to give an enemy a break, he thinks that if they give us the suppressant then we'd make it available to everyone, so they'd lose the ability to use the poison, lose a useful capability" I tried to understand his reasoning, but for the life of me couldn't, that mind set was so far from mine it was alien to me.

"And that means more to him than the life of a child?" her face hardened.

"It does" I felt sick, which came out in my voice.

"What sort of sick fucker is he?" Shaw's voice was grim.

"He's a spy, detective, a hostile intelligence agent; people like him make those sorts of value judgements without blinking. I don't claim to understand them" She sighed. "It's why I'm in the Bureau's criminal investigations area, not counter intelligence" Before I could speak Kate finished her phone call and looked over at us, her face grim.

"That was Ryan back at the precinct. Ilyana's collapsed. They've transported her to hospital. Looks like the last of the suppressant's breaking down" I looked down at the street, then back at the door of the Consulate before I looked up to see Mac and Jordan watching me. I nodded once then turned to Kate.

"Where'd they take her?"

"New York Presbyterian, it's a great children's hospital" I nodded, I knew it well, they dealt with a lot of SVU's young victims, but it didn't matter. Ilyana was going to die there. I thought of a pretty girl with bright blue eyes that had seen things no child of that age should ever have seen, lying alone in a hospital bed, a thought which made up my mind.

"I'll see you tomorrow" Mac looked at me, wondering if I was planning on doing something stupid. I sighed and spoke. "I'm going to the hospital, someone should be there with her" With that I turned and walked away as I felt their eyes on my back.


	18. Chapter 18

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 18**

 **Olivia**

I'd grown to dislike hospitals over the years. Intellectually I knew that good things happened at them, people got well and babies got born there, but in my experience hospitals were more likely places of physical and emotional pain. I'd spent enough time sitting in soulless waiting rooms that stank of disinfectant and that particular brand of odor neutralizer common to hospitals everywhere, sometimes I'd be here as a patient, more usually waiting on a victim or a fellow officer, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

This was going to be one of those times, I'd convinced the nurses that I should sit with Ilyana, truth be told they didn't take all that much convincing, they all knew the score, knew she needed someone there, no one should die alone, least of all a 14-year old girl a long way from home and whatever family she may once have had.

Hours later I was still there, sitting by her bed, watching her slip away. She'd vomited out the contents of her stomach long before, now there was nothing left to purge. They'd given her anti-nausea medication to stop the need to vomit and massive painkillers to mitigate the unceasing agony but she was so weak it hurt to see her like this.

The nurses and doctors came and went, they didn't have to say anything, I could see it in their eyes as they took her obs, her vital signs showing she was drifting away, the sadness evident in their eyes as they'd turned away to hide it from Ilyana, the knowledge that they weren't going to win this fight.

I'd held her hand and talked to her, even though she spoke very poor English, I think having someone there helped, helped her deal with the fear, the uncertainty, the pain and the terror. At one point she'd looked at me and spoke, haltingly.

"I am sick?" I nodded slowly.

"Yes baby, yes you are, but these people want to help you" It wasn't a lie, we all wanted to help her but we couldn't, no one could. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see crystal blue eyes, brimming with love and tears. I stood and enfolded Alex in a hug; god I needed her tonight, I just stood there and felt her, real and alive and here as she hugged me back hard. Finally we pulled apart and she smiled at me.

"Kate rang, she said you'd be here" I nodded, thank god for good friends and they came no better than Kate. Alex turned and looked down at the sleepy young girl lying there, dwarfed by the bed and the medical equipment around her. "And who is this pretty girl?" I forced a smile as I introduced them.

"Alex, I'd like you to meet my friend Ilyana Rogov. Ilyana, this is my other friend Alex Cabot" They smiled at each other before Alex turned and dragged a chair up beside mine and sat down, her hand taking mine as we sat there chatting to Ilyana, just meaningless chatter, talking about zoos and animals and happy things. Finally she was too weak to talk and fell asleep as she slipped away from us.

I'd noticed a cross around her neck and Ilyana had confirmed she was Russian Orthodox so I'd told the hospital and they'd called a chaplain. Father Dmitri was an old, gnomish man with a shock of white hair and a tired air of competence, as if he'd fought against evil in all its myriad forms all his life and it'd gradually worn him down, god knows I knew how that felt. He came in quietly and I explained the situation to him as Alex listened silently.

He nodded, smiled sadly and then performed the last rites for Ilyana as Alex and I stood witness. He chatted to us for a few minutes before he was called away to comfort another family who'd lost their child tonight, his work was never done, I understood now why he looked worn down; he fought to give hope to those who'd lost all hope, given all that how in hell do you tell a family who'd lost their child tonight that God was merciful, a god of love?

I sat there quietly, watching Ilyana sleeping for a long while before falling into a fitful sleep, full of nightmares and torments. I jerked awake to find that I'd slept for almost an hour and a half. I looked around to see Alex sitting next to me, still holding my hand.

"You needed the sleep Liv" I nodded; I must have to drop off like that, as Alex continued. "Kate dropped in for a bit, but she insisted we let you sleep"

I looked down at the little girl in front of me, looking quiet and pale and so very small, then looked back at Alex and spoke softly.

"She reminded me of you Alex" Alex looked over at Ilyana then back at me as I continued. "Blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin, pretty, like I'd imagined you'd look like at that age" I stared down at Ilyana then turned to Alex. "She looked a lot like I'd imagined our daughter would look like, that she'd look like you"

Alex was silent for a really long time before finally replying, speaking softly.

"I'd always hoped that our daughter would look and be like you, strong and loving and kind and gentle, with dark hair and a beautiful face" I went to say something when the heart monitor went off, its shrill scream filling the room.

In seconds the room was full of medical people storming in and pushing us away from the bed to make room to work but really, there was nothing to be done beyond attest to the inevitable. Finally the doctor in charge turned off the monitors and turned to us, the pain and sorrow visible in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry detective…" I just nodded; there was nothing that anyone could have done.

Alex wrapped her arms around me, holding me together as I felt like I was shattering, crumbling into a million pieces as I turned and cried into her shoulder, cried like my heart had broken. Finally I felt my tears dry as her hand stroked my hair before I eventually stepped back as I looked at her, my blonde angel, holding me together a little longer.

"C'mon Liv, let's get you home"

I turned to leave, but turned back for one last look at the tiny shape in the bed, now at peace.

God, I hate my job.


	19. Chapter 19

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 19**

 **K** **ate**

I stared at the murder board and sighed, lots of leads that led to dead ends, quite literally. I'd called in to the hospital on the way home last night to find Liv and Alex both there; Liv had been sleeping, exhausted probably, thank god she had Alex.

I'd left them after a while there, watching Ilyana and Liv sleep and quietly chatting to Alex before I'd headed home where I'd sat on my couch, eating take-out noodles and drinking red wine, waiting. Finally Castle had Skyped in; he did every night he was away, no matter how messed up the time zones might be.

We'd talked for well over an hour. I asked about his trip, what he'd been doing, before he turned the conversation round to me and the investigation. I'd ended up speaking for more than forty minutes about the case, how it was affecting me, how it was affecting the others, how horrible it was.

Rick had asked if he should come home early, just to be there for me even if he couldn't work on the case, but I'd told him no, he was doing his job and I was doing mine. We'd finally ended the call as we were both falling asleep, promising to chat again tonight.

I'd lied, I did want him there, I wanted to climb into his bed and snuggle into his arms and have him hold me and tell me everything would be ok, but he had a job to do, the same as I did, even though sometimes the job wasn't what we wanted. Instead I'd had a miserable night's sleep before heading in again. I was sitting there, missing Castle and his morning coffee and pastry delivery, when Mac Taylor walked up and sat next to me, nodding.

"Hey"

"Morning" He looked at me for a moment before turning to regard the murder board.

"Ilyana well…she died last night" I turned my head to look at him, slowly nodding as I replied.

"Yeah, I looked in, she was slipping away" He nodded sadly.

"I dropped in too but I was too late" We sat there for a moment, wrapped in silence and our thoughts, before he spoke again. "Can I ask you a question?" I shrugged.

"Sure" He looked me in the eye and spoke.

"Is Benson going to be fit to work this case? She came close to losing it at the Consulate yesterday" At my scowl he held his hands up. "Look, I have to ask and you're her friend" I nodded, angry at the question but understanding why he was asking.

"Olivia Benson is a great detective, top closure rate, outstanding record, decorated for her bravery and service multiple times, she's one of the NYPD's best" I held up my hand before he could speak. "But she's been in Special Victims for well over a decade. Most people there burn out in three or four years, but she hangs in there. In her case she cares, about the victims, about getting them closure" I shrugged. "She's as good as they come; it's just that this case, I mean kids for god's sake, that's hitting her right where it hurts"

Taylor sat there for a while before nodding; he turned his attention back to the board and changed the subject, letting me know the subject was closed, at least for the moment.

"What did we get on the building and the car?" I scowled, picking up the file on my desk.

"The building was a dead end, everything led back to the Cayman Islands shelf company. Same with the Cayenne; it was owned by yet another Cayman's shelf company. The ID's we pulled off the three dead mobsters were all decent quality forgeries, good enough to pass a close inspection, so all we have lead precisely nowhere" Mac grimaced.

"So nothing" I shrugged, trying to inject a little optimism into the talk.

"Maybe Shaw can get something off the sketch" He nodded slowly as he spoke.

"I hope so, because without it we might as well be at square one" We subsided into silence as we stared at the board. A few minutes later Liv walked in, looking a little tired, I knew she hadn't slept all that well last night. She'd always empathised with the victims, like I'd told Mac; kids hit her right where it hurt the most. It hit all of us, but Liv was a SVU cop, over the years she'd seen way too many abused kids. Now, with five dead children in the morgue, well…

To be honest no one was handling it well; even Lanie and Melanie had asked for help from the Crime Lab, way too many kids for anyone to be able to deal with easily, let alone those tasked with doing the autopsies on desperately small victims, cataloging a litany of physical and sexual injuries to their tiny, horribly abused bodies. Jo Danville was handling the autopsy of Ilyana this morning, giving them both a break.

We wandered in and made coffee in the break room, both Mac and Liv commenting on how the 12th had all the modern conveniences. Castle's gift to the precinct might have been made years ago, but everyone here appreciated it daily. The fact that he continued to pay to have it serviced and stocked was yet another reason why everyone was happy to have him around, even Gates had warmed up to him eventually. Mind you, that wasn't the only reason we liked having him around, he went out of his way to get to know everyone, to make time for them, he'd appointed himself the 12th precinct's morale officer, making sure that in lots of little ways, that we all knew we were appreciated.

His most recent had been a costume party for everyone who could make it, which had turned out to be more fun than anyone could have imagined. Even 'Iron' Gates had attended, poking gentle fun at herself, turning up as the wicked witch much to everyone's amusement. We'd had a great night and people still talked about it.

I closed my eyes for a moment, god I missed him and I really, really needed him here right now.

"Got one for me?" I opened my eyes at her voice to see Jordan Shaw standing in the doorway, looking very, very tired. I nodded slowly as I replied.

"Sure, as long as you've got a lead for us" I turned to the machine and reached for another cup as she spoke.

"Oh, is that the going rate for a coffee these days?" I looked her way and we smiled before she nodded. "Good thing I've got something then" I turned back to the coffee, taking care not to let the steam anywhere near my hands as Liv jumped in.

"What you got?" I could hear the tiredness in Jordan's voice as she spoke.

"Turns out we have a match for the sketch. Didn't turn up in the criminal side of the house though, he was in the counter-intelligence section" Mac frowned.

"Well, don't keep us hanging" Jordan smiled, a little tiredly.

"Have a heart; I've been up all night running databases. I need that coffee" I nodded, now I knew where she'd been last night. I turned and handed her the cup.

"Here you go; a strong one" She nodded gratefully, taking a sip and smiling before speaking.

"Oh, that's good, thank you" She looked round the group then resumed her explanation. "Turns out our suspect's one Viktor Illich Lysenko" We followed her back out to our desks where she swapped her cup for a magnet and pinned a passport photo up on the murder board. "Lysenko was a KGB agent who operated here in the US during the late nineties, mostly on industrial espionage. The Bureau had him under surveillance but he must have got a twitch that the Bureau was on to him, next we knew he'd disappeared and turned up back in Moscow. It appears he's since left the SVR and is now working for himself, gone freelance" I felt my mouth twist as I spoke up.

"Ain't capitalism wonderful?" Jordan shook her head as she replied.

"I not sure what they have over in Russia is capitalism, more like a kleptocracy" I thought her comment over then spoke.

"Maybe under Yeltsin, not sure it still fits that description under Putin" I'd visited Russia and the Ukraine and found it a fascinating place, so much so that I still followed news and analysis of what was happening over there. Jordan was intrigued, her voice carried her curiosity.

"Well, what would you call it now then" I frowned, putting it into words wasn't easy, the politics over there were more than just complex.

"An oligarchy maybe, it sure seems that most of the powers concentrated in a few people at the top" Taylor frowned and jumped in.

"Sounds like a dictatorship to me, doesn't Putin pretty much run things over there" I nodded.

"In concert with others, pretty much" As interesting as we were finding the discussion Liv obviously wanted to refocus.

"So what do we have on this guy, Lysenko?" Jordan dragged out a set of notes from a folder and started reading them off.

"KGB, foreign intelligence specialist, apparently speaks almost unaccented English, has a taste for the high life, that's what tripped the Bureau to him when he was over here before, he's got expensive tastes in women, clothes and cars, often all three at the same time" I thought that through then asked a question.

"Any idea how long he's been back in the country?" Jordan sipped her coffee, obviously considering the question before answering.

"Afraid not, obviously more than two years, getting everything set up here would have taken time before he brought in the first kids and he's not the sort of person to delegate something important like that to anyone else" I thought it over as Liv spoke up.

"So we have a name, but not much else" Jordan nodded.

"Pretty much" Mac decided it was time to refocus.

"Let's go over it again. We know he's definitely living on the island or close by, he must be to be able to turn up to give the kids their suppressant" Liv nodded from where she was sipping her coffee and replied.

"Right" Mac nodded slowly then kicked the conversation on a bit.

"He must be getting a bit desperate; he's lost five of his string of kids in the last few days, plus three of his muscle. If you're Lysenko, what'd you do now?" I thought about it.

"Me, I'd lay low, let the heat die down" Liv frowned, levering herself up off the desk to stand, speaking as she did.

"I'm not so sure that's an option, he's no doubt got customers already booked, he doesn't want any of them thinking he's an unreliable supplier" Mac nodded in response and continued the discussion.

"Yeah, he must have worked hard to get established and build up a clientele willing to pay his very high prices" Jordan looked back at the picture of Syme on the board and asked a question.

"How is he contacting them, word of mouth or on-line or personal referrals maybe?" Liv looked her way and spoke up.

"I talked to some of our cyber-crime specialists. Apparently the most common way is via private chat rooms on line in what they call the dark web, places Google can't find" She pulled a face at that then continued. "Once one member vouches for you, well that opens the door for others" Mac looked pensive at her information then replied.

"Can we get into those chat rooms?" Liv quickly shot that idea down.

"Almost certainly not, they're in the deep web, never catalogued, you won't find them with a search engine, only an IP address. The only way you know where they are is by an IP address that's emailed out to a series of anonymous email addresses, letting them know that's the right place for the next few days" I thought about that for a moment, an idea forming.

"Syme must have been using a computer to log in, can we find it and see what he's got on it" Jordan looked sceptical.

"Lysenko must have covered his tracks there" I shrugged, she was right but…

"Maybe, we can only try" We looked around at each other, finally Mac spoke.

"Let's make a few calls and see what we have"


	20. Chapter 20

As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders, and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us.

 **Breaking Barriers Chapter 20**

 **J** **ordan**

We were sitting around the table in the 12th precinct's conference room, watching Tori Ellis get Syme's laptop set up and connected to the net, I'd offered one of the Bureau's experts but she was apparently the resident computer expert in the precinct and Beckett had personally and loudly vouched for her skills. We'd found the laptop in his office in a safe that we'd had to get a court order to crack open, fortunately thanks to Benson's partner Cabot, that had been easier than I'd expected. There were advantages to having one of the team involved with one of Manhattan's most feared prosecutors.

The laptop had a series of different email accounts, one of which seemed to exist only to receive emails from a user id known as 'Qerty 518734'. The emails simply listed a new URL to an anonymous forum that would be active for the next two weeks. We had two days left before it changed. I looked round at Beckett, Benson and Taylor, seeing the nerves they were trying to keep under control. To be honest this was a bit of a 'Hail Mary' play, Lysenko was smart enough to keep a low profile, making our chances of finding him without a lucky break slim to non-existent. I leaned back, trying to project the aura of calm the Bureau expected of its agents but I was nervous too.

Lysenko was a trafficker in child prostitution and slavery, a rock spider. As an agent I wanted him arrested, as a human being I wanted him to rot in prison for the rest of his life, as the mother of a beautiful little girl, I wanted him dead. We sipped our coffee quietly as Ellis got everything set up then, having already backed the entire contents of the laptop onto an external hard drive, she looked up at us.

"You realise that when we log in, the admin will see who we are, that we're logging in as Syme?" Beckett nodded.

"I know, but we don't have much else" Ellis grimaced and started typing.

"Ok, here goes…we're in" Taylor leaned forward as we crowded round.

"Screenshot everything you can, let's see what we have" Ellis nodded, her fingers flying.

"There are five people in here right now" Beckett nodded and asked the question.

"Anyone listed as admin?" Ellis shook her head.

"Nope, not yet, but if he's halfway smart he'd check in regularly" Benson's voice rose.

"User reviews? What the fuck!" I heard the outrage in her voice and knew exactly how she felt; Beckett leaned in over Tori's shoulder, her voice giving an order.

"Click on it" Ellis nodded and did so.

"Here's one, dated almost two weeks ago" Tori started reading, her voice wondering, turning to disgust as she read aloud. "Cannot recommend this service enough, the girl, Ilyana, was everything promised, beautiful and compliant, I loved her begging act, very convincing. A very satisfied customer, I'll be back for more" Ellis shook her head in stunned disbelief. "Jesus, this is like they're rating a restaurant" Taylor's mouth twisted in disgust, reflected in his voice.

"What sort of sick fucks are these people?" Beckett's voice was as cold as ice.

"Very" I felt the same as Beckett, disgust and nausea warring within me. I leaned forward and spoke.

"OK, back up and see what else is here" Taylor nodded.

"Keep getting screen shots of everything" Ellis didn't look up as she spoke, fingers flying.

"I am, don't worry" Benson's hand shot forward to point at the screen.

"Hey, look there; that post, 'temporary disruption to supply, soon to be rectified', no, no, the next one" Taylor nodded.

"Yeah, click on that one" As it loaded Kate was already reading the first post.

"Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances, there will be a temporary limit to available merchandise; this is expected to be rectified within the next two weeks" Benson's voice rose in disbelief.

"What the hell, two weeks?" Kate was still reading.

"We guarantee our new merchandise will more than meet your expectations and apologise for any inconvenience" I shook my head, trying to focus.

"Is there anything about how they contact Lysenko?" Ellis nodded at my question, clicking out of the post and back to the main page.

"Let's see" Beckett rubbed her chin.

"It's probably one of the earliest posts, from when they were starting out" Ellis nodded.

"Good call, here we are" Benson leaned forward and pointed at one post.

"It's a cell number" Ellis opened the post and scrolled down the page.

"It keeps changing" Taylor nodded.

"Figures, burner phones, almost certainly" I glanced across at him.

"No one said he was stupid" Ellis suddenly sat a bit straighter.

"Here's the most recent number, it's only four days old" I nodded.

"We'll see if we can run it down" Ellis's voice suddenly rose, a hint of panic in it.

"Oh shit" Taylor leaned closer.

"What?" Ellis pointed to a list of people online in the lower left of the screen.

"Here, the Admin just logged in" Beckett cursed as did Taylor.

"Damn"

"Oh crap" Benson patted Ellis on the shoulder.

"Keep looking Tori, quick, anything else" Ellis nodded, her fingers flying, the mouse clicking frantically.

"If he's on the ball, he'll kick us out" I nodded.

"We understand, just do your best" She didn't say anything, popping open windows and screenshotting them in rapid succession before closing them and opening others in a blisteringly fast dance; she was amazingly good at this, most of us couldn't follow her, it was that fast. Suddenly it froze as Ellis cursed, joined by a chorus of others.

"Oh damn"

"Hey!"

"Fuck no!"

"Oh no"

"What the hell!"

"What happened?" I asked as Tori shrugged.

"He crashed the server, kicked everyone off" Benson sighed then spoke for all of us.

"Damn" I looked around at everyone.

"I suppose we got as much as we were likely too" Taylor nodded slowly.

"Yeah, good work Tori, damned good work" Benson sat back.

"So, was it worth it, did we get anything useful?" I nodded.

"Some stuff, the cell phone might be a burner but we can try and find where it was bought" Ellis was checking the pages she still had open, making sure she'd got screenshots of each of them.

"Oh god no" The dreadful, horrified pain in her voice made our heads swing back to where Tori was staring at the screen, Beckett was fractionally faster.

"What?" Ellis just pointed at the screen where a single heading sat there; 'MERCHANDISE'. I heard the words without realising I'd said them.

"Oh my god"

Slowly Ellis scrolled down the page, revealing a series of photos, some we recognised, some we didn't. Fourteen children, mostly blonde, some brunette, young boys and girls, all attractive, sorted alphabetically, accompanied by descriptions that were unbelievable.

Benson's voice was soft as she reached out, her finger touching the screen, counting the names and photos down the page.

"Antonina, Daniil, Gregoryi, Ilyana, Kirill, Ludmilla, Natalia, Nikolai, Stepan, Svetlana, Talia, Tatiana, Viktoriya and Zhanna"

I saw Beckett's hands fly to her face as she read the descriptions, outlining each child's 'specialties'. I felt my stomach heave at the words. Tori, sounding like she was desperately trying to avoid being sick, spoke.

"Anal… golden showers… scat… lesbian… submissive slave… fisting... no gag reflex…" Her voice trailed off. "What sort of horrific monsters are we dealing with here?" Taylor shook his head as he spoke, disgust shading his words.

"The kind that need to be put away" Benson's voice was cold as death itself.

"No, the sort that needs to be put down, like rabid dogs"


	21. Chapter 21

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 21**

 **Mac**

I sat back and watched as Benson, Beckett and Shaw kicked around what we had, they worked well together, proposing, considering and discarding theories, suggesting options, anything to get a handle on this case.

I hadn't worked with any of them before, though all three had impressive reputations in their various fields. I'd heard of Beckett and Benson via the office grapevine, Jo Danville knew their respective ME's, Lanie Parish and Melinda Werner and couldn't speak highly enough of their work.

They in turn were big fans of Beckett and Benson, some of their cases I'd heard about were hard to believe, but both had an array of commendations and citations to back up their impressive records.

According to my sources Shaw had her own equally impressive reputation within the Bureau and was working seamlessly with the other two so I just sat back and watched them work, they were doing fine, leaving me to enjoy the surprisingly good coffee they had here in the 12th Precinct. Shaw was the one speaking.

"So we need to run down the cell phone, it's almost certainly a burner but we have to try" Beckett nodded.

"We might get lucky" She shrugged and continued. "But you're right, we have to try" Benson was staring at the murder board.

"Did we get anything on Syme's missing vehicles, maybe there's something about those cars..." Beckett nodded.

"We've got a BOLO out for both of them; hopefully a patrol car will spot them"

At a loud noise all three looked round at where Tori had slammed down the phone on its cradle then pushed back from her computer in frustration. She looked up to find us all staring and shrugged, a little sheepishly and shook her head before speaking.

"The contact details for the administrator of the chat room at the web host are for a company called Universal Corporate Export International from guess where?"

"The Cayman Islands" It was Beckett and Shaw in perfect unison. They looked at each other in surprise for a second while I hid a smile as Tori stood, coffee cup in hand.

"Dead right; god I need a fresh cup. Anyone need one?" There was a chorus of " _no thanks_ " and " _I'm goods_ " as she wandered to the break room. Benson looked across at Shaw.

"Can you get Immigration to keep an eye out for unaccompanied minors arriving from Russia in the next few weeks?" Shaw nodded.

"There'll be a watch list update go out tonight, to all direct entry ports for flights from Russia" Benson frowned.

"What about connecting flights?" Shaw looked her way as she answered.

"All the previous entries were direct flights, probably doesn't want any chance of the kids doing a runner while the flights are connecting through Heathrow or Frankfurt or Paris" I nodded at that as did Benson, it made sense. Turning my attention back to the white boards I sat and thought about that for a moment, 'new merchandise' meant more kids. Lysenko had lost five of his kids in a short space of time, if he was planning to replace them, he'd need to move quickly. I suddenly had a thought; he'd also need to replace his muscle; the one's we'd taken down had all been Russian too…

"Get them to flag any single males travelling solo to the states on the same flights, particularly any who haven't been here before." At my voice they all turned to look at me, Shaw started nodding as she spoke.

"Good idea" Benson was in agreement.

"Yeah, he's lost three guys as well, he'll need replacements for them too" I took a sip of coffee then continued.

"Well, he's already lost kids because he didn't have anyone with them on flights, he can't afford to lose any more and dick his customers around"

"Yo, what's happening? Get anything from the net?" It was Esposito, he and Ryan walking in as Beckett looked up and answered for us all.

"Some, but it's pretty slim" Esposito smiled.

"We might have something more to go on. Talking to uniforms canvassing the area around the dumpster where they found Syme, they told me it's the usual haunt of a couple of winos, so I chased them up. Couldn't find one but the other turned out to have seen a black stretch Hummer with spinning rims pull up in front of the dumpster and two guys dump something in there" Benson looked up at Shaw.

"Lysenko likes flashy cars didn't you say" Shaw nodded as she answered.

"That's what his file says"

"Don't suppose your witness got a plate number" It was Beckett. "Or did we get lucky?"

"Nope, that'd be way too easy…" Esposito grinned. "Our witness doesn't remember much, but as it left he saw it had a sticker in the back window, a yellow triangle" I watched as both Benson and Beckett got thoughtful looks on their faces. Shaw however looked confused.

"And this means..." Ryan looked at her and smiled.

"Secure Parking fixes yellow triangles to the front and back windows of long-term parking permit holders in their parking garages. It makes it easier to tell when a car's not parked in the right place" Beckett nodded then jumped in.

"NYPD works with Secure all the time, chasing missing cars. Ryan, Espo, can you talk to Secure and get them to run down that car?" He smiled.

"Already on it, they'll call as soon as they have something" We all smiled, it's good working with people who know what they're doing and the initiative to do things on their own. From what I'd seen I could understand why Beckett, Esposito, Ryan and that writer, Castle, were so highly thought of here at the 12th and why their boss, Captain Gates kept them together, they were damned good at their job.

For the next two hours we worked the phones, Shaw to other Federal agencies, Benson and Beckett working leads while I kept in touch with the lab, making sure things were OK back there while I worked on this case. It's moments like this I missed being a detective out on the streets. I liked what I did, I'd back my team against any crime lab in the country, even the hot shots down in Miami and out in Vegas, but there were times when I missed the chase; when I think I've become a glorified paper pusher. It doesn't happen all that often but it does from time to time and I'd be left wondering if I'd made the right choice. That thought was interrupted as Beckett put the phone down and stood, grabbing her jacket.

"That was Ryan, Secure rang, they have a black stretch Hummer with spinning rims and yellow tags parked in one of their garages on West 45th Street" We all stood and grabbed our things before making our way out to her car.

Twenty minutes later we met up with Esposito and Ryan at the garage, located amongst a group of theatres. I looked around and commented.

"Seems a strange place to leave a car" Esposito shrugged as he answered.

"Manager says the car came in two days ago and hasn't moved since" I nodded as Benson looked around.

"Looks like they have surveillance camera's on the entrance, let's see if they can pull the footage for its arrival" Ryan nodded and headed in one direction as Esposito led us towards the stairs. Two levels up we approached the car in question, guarded by two uniforms. It sure matched our description, right down to the spinning rims.

Beckett looked over to Esposito.

"Do we have an owner?" He pulled a face then spoke, resignation in his voice.

"Registered to a business, guess where?" We all pulled faces, we didn't need to guess; Benson shook her head.

"Consistent aren't they?" We all pulled on gloves before moving up and standing next to the car. Beckett looked over at Shaw and asked.

"Can you pick the lock or should we wait for the lab guys?" Shaw shook her head.

"An old door lock's one thing, modern cars are a bit more difficult without the right tools" I smiled, I was intimately familiar with Hummers, seen way too many of them back in the Army so this trick should work, even on this one.

"Let me" I reached down and pulled the door slightly up from the bottom, while pushing in the top just so, then twisted the door hard. We were rewarded by a gentle click as the door opened. Esposito just looked at me, surprise evident on his face.

"Bro, how you do that?" I shrugged.

Too many years in the Army, you pick up tricks" He shook his head, looking me over.

"Army puke" I raised an eyebrow and looked him over. He looked fit and competent; I decided to mess with him a bit.

"Don't tell me, Air Force? His yelp was worth a grin.

"Civilians in uniform, no way" He crossed his arms and regarded me with a frown. "Marines" I smiled, it was too easy.

"Oh them" His frown changed to a scowl.

"Yeah them" I'd never met a Marine yet who wasn't proud as a peacock of being one. Messing with the Marines was practically an Army pastime.

"You do know what USMC stands for don't you? Uncle Sam's Misguided Children" He just shook his head.

"You say you learnt tricks in the Army, you sure it wasn't turning…" Beckett interrupted us, a barely hidden smile on her face.

"If you two are quite finished comparing the lengths of your… service, can we get on with this?" Esposito and I exchanged a look and a nod; civilians, they just don't get it, pissing off the other services is practically mandatory. Esposito smiled and spoke.

"Sure thing" I checked everyone had gloves on before I pulled the door open and we looked in, nothing jumped out, it all looked normal enough. Beckett leaned in and flipped the central locking and we opened the rest of the doors. The car seemed clean enough, though we'd definitely need the lab to go over it to be sure.

"Yo, back here" It was Esposito; he'd opened the rear door. "It's definitely our vehicle"

Looking in we could see blood on the carpet in the back, a pile of bloodstained clothes and an equally bloodstained baseball bat, together with that coppery smell. I looked up and spoke.

"I'll get my people to process everything ASAP" They all nodded before Beckett turned to us.

"Didn't the report say that Syme's body was found nude" Esposito and Benson both nodded. As we watched, Becket reached in and lifted a pair of trousers, then another. "There are two sets of clothes here" Shaw leaned forward, turning one pair slightly to see the tag.

"Definitely different sizes, so we have two people's clothes here. Figure some belonged to Syme; they stripped him before the beating. The others belong to someone else; maybe whoever did the beating ended up with blood all over their clothes" Nodding I stepped back, calling Jo at the crime lab, telling her I needed a full team down here urgently.

It might be a lead, it might not, but it was as good as we had going for us right now.


	22. Chapter 22

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 22**

 **K** **ate**

We stood around for a while until Taylor's people from the crime lab arrived. We were about to leave them to it when I heard a commotion from the stairwell, hearing Ryan's voice shouting to someone to keep their hands away from a weapon.

I drew my Glock and raced over to the stairwell, the others close on my heels, to find Ryan standing over a pale-looking, heavy-set balding man lying face down on the stairwell landing floor, his pistol aimed at the back of the guy's head. At our arrival Kevin looked up and spoke.

"He was standing here, peering round the door watching you at the car as I came up the stairs. He mustn't have heard me because of the noise from outside. Anyway I noticed he had a set of Hummer keys in his hand so I was about to say something when I saw a bulge under the jacket. I drew on him and called on him to get his hands on his head and away from his weapon" I looked down at the man sweating on the floor and back up at Kevin.

"Good work" I watched as Jordan picked up the keys and turned them over in her gloved hands.

"Yep, Hummer all right" She held it up and you could see the branding on the remote. "What's the bet it'll work on the one back there?" I watched as Espo flipped up the guy's jacket, revealing a pistol in a belt holster in the small of his back and dragged out a Beretta. I looked back at Ryan.

"Sharp eyes Kevin" He shrugged as he played it down.

"I was lucky, it was the right angle" He indicated back down the steps. I watched as Esposito cuffed the guy and dragged him to his feet as Liv stepped forward.

"What's your name?" He shrugged and spoke in Russian, telling her to go fuck herself. I smiled and replied in Russian.

" _Oh no, you're the one who's fucked_ " The surprise in his face was almost comical as Liv looked over at me, a wry expression on her face.

"I can imagine what he said" She reached into his jacket and fished out a wallet. "Viktor Constantinov, address up in Yonkers, probably a fake" Constantinov or whatever his real name was, looked around at us all and then at me.

" _I have done nothing wrong, you cannot do this_ " I looked at him for a second, before holding out my hand to Jordan for the Hummer keys, Jordan dropping them into my palm. I turned and stepped to the door and pointed it at the car, pushing the button. The lights flashed as it tried to lock, but couldn't with all the doors open. I looked back at him.

" _Yes you have and yes I can_ " I looked at Espo and Ryan. "Take him in"

In fact it turned out his name really was Vikton Constantinov and he did live in Yonkers. He worked at a car repair place which popped a flag when we looked it up, it turned out the place was of interest to the guys in robbery, they'd long suspected it did a lot of car rebirthing but hadn't been able to get anything concrete. After explaining to our recalcitrant Russian friend that he was a suspect in a murder investigation, with a side order of child sex trafficking and outlining what was likely to happen to him should he go to prison with that on his rap sheet, his English improved markedly and he became remarkably talkative.

It turned out that Lysenko had sold the Hummer to the yard to be stripped into component parts. Constantinov also confirmed that the yard's owner, another Russian believed to have ties to the Russian mob, the Organizatsia, had recently bought a black Escalade from him and stripped that down as well.

We'd dragged in the yard owner and sweated him for a while; he'd copped to the receiving stolen goods but insisted that he had bought the cars on the recommendation of a friend who he wouldn't give up. Probably afraid of ratting out his bosses in the mob, if he kept his mouth shut they'd look after him. He was almost certainly a dead end, a peripheral player in this story as Castle would have described it.

I stood there and closed my eyes, god I missed him and couldn't wait for him to get back; I desperately needed his particular brand of crazy to help keep me sane in the face of everything this case was doing to us.

We'd been very lucky, another half hour and the Hummer would have been long gone, together with any evidence in it. After checking out his story we handed him across to the guys from robbery, they were grateful for the info, but it got us no closer to solving our case.

It would take some time for the forensics to come back from the Crime Lab on the processing of the Hummer so the rest of us sat down and kicked around theories as we worked on the murder board. The one bright spot had come when Tori called us into the tech room and showed us the footage of the Hummer being driven in. The security cameras had got reasonable shots of the driver who we didn't recognise and the guy in the passenger seat who was definitely Lysenko. He was older and heavier set than in Jordan's picture but it was definitely him as we pinned the image up on the board. We could definitely tie him to Syme via the car and the footage.

We sat and stood around for a while longer, drinking coffee, bouncing theories and guesses, until I had a thought and called across the room to our resident computer whiz.

"Tori" She looked up at my call. "You said that all of the trails lead back to the Cayman Islands?" She nodded as she sat back and replied.

"Yes, the building, the website, the car, everything" I thought about that for a moment.

"Was it all to the same company?" She shook her head as she checked a sheet of paper, then looked back at me and spoke.

"No, three companies, Emporium International Trade Holdings, Amalgamated Overseas Imports Agencies and Universal Corporate Export International" I thought about it for a moment, but Jordan beat me to it.

"Is there anything they have in common, anything at all?" Tori spun and started tapping away on her keyboard, fingers flying as she spoke distractedly.

"No not really, from the public record, there's not a lot. Business numbers, registration, date of creation, place of ownership is a post office box, also in the Caymans" Taylor had walked over and was peering over her shoulder.

"Wait, go back" When she had he leaned in and tapped the screen, then nodded. "Same date" Tori nodded and looked up at us.

"All the companies were created the same day, at the same government office" I nodded as I shared a look with Jordan. Still looking at her, I spoke up.

"Can you find out which other companies were created that day in the same office?" I looked back to see Tori nodding and start hunting as Liv handed a steaming fresh cup of coffee to both Jordan and I. I smiled in thanks and watched Tori work her magic, she had a gift for computers and we wouldn't be anywhere near as successful without her skills, not that I'd tell her that, one person with an outsize ego on our team was more than enough. I smiled as I recalled some of Castle's antics; he really needed to get his ass back to New York soon before I found myself doing something stupid, like going postal on a few huge tubs of Ben and Jerry's and ending up the size of a house.

"Okay, here we are" Tori's voice dragged me back to the here and now as I stood and wandered down to join the rest in looking at her results. "In addition to the ones we already know about there were eighteen companies formed that day in that office" I peered at the list and frowned, eighteen? Jordan leaned in and nodded.

"You can eliminate those two' She tapped two marked 'MSAF 28' and 'MSAF 29'. I know them. They're aircraft leasing companies finance entities; Morgan Stanley Aircraft Financing 28 and 29, it's a vehicle they set up to handle securitized financing for aircraft leased to airlines" As she realised we were all staring at her she shrugged, a slightly embarrassed look on her face. "I worked Corporate Fraud for a while back in the late 90s; I got to learn how a lot of international finance and leasing works" I nodded slowly, realising we were lucky having her with us. Tori had already wiped them off the list and then started checking some of the acronyms in Google, which allowed us to write off four more. That left us with twelve. Liv got a thoughtful look.

"How many of them were created by a company in the Caymans?" She said. "You said the others led to a PO Box" Tori was nodding and cross checking, whittling it down to seven. Most were obscure combinations of letters and numbers, meaning god knows what, but three were the same sort of nondescript bland names we'd seen before.

"Omniversal Manufacturing Solutions Ltd, Pan Global Trading Enterprises Pty Ltd and International Autonomous Management Services Incorporated" Mac looked kinda peeved, something that came out in his voice as he glanced Liv's way.

"Sounds like something a Bond villain'd set up" Liv leaned forward.

"Can you dig into what they might have been used for? Maybe get a lead?" Tori looked a little pensive as she looked from one face to another, finally settling on Jordan's.

"I might be able to find something, but not right now" I frowned.

"Why not?" She glanced at me then back to Jordan, grimacing as she spoke.

"Some of my methods might not be…approved of by some organisations" I still didn't quite get it until Jordan nodded slowly.

"Yes, some organisations might object, if they knew. Fortunately I'm on my lunch break and I'm on my own time" My eyes flicked up to the clock in confusion, it was almost 4 PM and we'd had lunch a few hours back; Tori however just smiled.

"Well, in that case, enjoy your lunch" Jordan smiled back and stood.

"I might need a fresh coffee" With that she started walking towards the kitchen as Tori reached into her desk drawer and brought out a book that seemed filled with URLs and logins and passwords, before she looked around and smiled, a little twistedly.

"Could you guys go and get me a coffee" I looked at her as her eyes took us all in, before she spoke again, slowly. "All of you please go get me a coffee" I nodded slowly and we all stood and started to walk away as she bent to work. Looking over my shoulder I was stunned to see the SEC website come up, complete with employee login prompts. Before I could recover, she was in and searching the SEC's database. I stepped back to her side and lowered my voice to a hiss.

"Ellis, where did you get this stuff?" She shrugged as she looked up at me.

"I know some people ok?" I was still trying to wrap my head around what she was doing.

"But Tori…" I hated how whiney I sounded. "…the SEC?" She pointed towards the break room.

"Beckett, go make me a coffee. And don't ask questions you really don't want answers to" I stared at her for a moment, our eyes meeting before I slowly nodded and stood, then just shook my head and joined the others in the break room.

Several hours later Tori joined us from her electronics room and started placing printed sheets on the murder board. The way this case was developing I definitely needed more boards. I tried desperately not to notice the logos on some of the pages; SEC, Commerce, Finance, Treasury and a slew of the major US and foreign banks amongst others. She started speaking as she finished pinning them up.

"Ok, each company had different uses. Omniversal seems to be used mostly to pay for international travel; since it was set up the majority of its expenses have been airfares, most commonly between the USA and Russia" We nodded, that made sense as she continued. "It appears to have been used in the last week to purchase six tickets from St Petersburg to New York, flying in Friday next week" Liv nodded slowly.

"That makes sense, he said more kids were being brought in, that's probably them" Mac looked thoughtful.

"Probably some more Russian mob muscle as well, he's down a few of those too" I looked over at Jordan and asked.

"Can we arrange a suitable reception for our tourists?" She smiled at me and then looked over at Tori almost fondly.

"As soon as I have details, we'll have people waiting for them" Tori smiled and nodded before continuing.

"No problem, you'll have it as soon as we finish here. Now Universal here seems to have been responsible for websites and such. It set up the website that was hosting the chat room we saw, plus several other websites"

"What kind of websites?" It was Liv. "Anything useful?" Tri shook her head.

"Don't know, I haven't had a chance to look at them yet, figured you'd want to know about this first" I nodded and got us back on track.

"And the third company?" Tori nodded and looked back down at her notes.

"It pays real estate rentals on a number of properties here in New York"

"How many?" It was Jordan. Tori checked her notes before replying.

"More than a dozen"

We looked around and smiled as Liv spoke up.

"Paydirt"


	23. Chapter 23

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 23**

 **K** **ate**

We got a list of properties from Tori and started chasing down search warrants. Most of the properties were apartments, two were parking garages and two were commercial properties.

The apartments turned up mostly empty, though a team led by Ryan had tumbled a guy in one of them who'd tried to run then shoot it out on the fire escape; unfortunately for him a bullet through the thigh had stopped that. He was in emergency now getting patched up, surrounded by uniforms. We were going to have a chat to him as soon as we could.

The two garages contained a Porsche 911 and a Jaguar, both were soon on their way down to the crime lab for processing, Mac hadn't been kidding when he said the full resources of his team were available for this case; I'd never had support like this on a case. I paused for a moment to wonder how many other cases were being put on the back-burner so we could get on top of this one and winced at the numbers that came to mind.

The commercial properties were the most interesting so we'd split up, Mac and Jordan taking one while Liv and I took the other. Ours was a three-story former shop on the east side, the windows shuttered. Checking round the back, uniforms reported that there was a Mercedes SUV with blacked out windows parked there so there was a good chance someone was home. There was a rusty padlock on the front doors suggesting it was likely almost never used so we relocated out back, leaving two uniforms covering the front.

The back door was locked, but a swift kick from the biggest of the uniforms with us fixed that, allowing us to fan out through the building, pistols ready. The first guy who appeared was unarmed and at our shouts he raised his hands as we swept past him, leaving him for the uniforms to deal with as we kept moving, looking for anyone else.

Racing up the stairs, we emerged to see a guy coming out of a toilet, hand fumbling with his trousers while he held a pistol in the other, his eyes wide in fear. I stepped to one side as Liv moved past, both of us with our guns on him, yelling for him to drop it. For a split second I thought he was going to be stupid but the sight of the uniforms backing us up he must have convinced him that he had no chance as he slowly let his hand fall, then leaned down to put it on the floor.

While the uniforms cuffed him, we continued the search but they were the only adults there. We found two children though, locked in individual rooms, a boy and girl, Stepan and Tatiana; both were scared but calmed down as I told them in Russian we were the police, here to rescue them, the looks on their faces made me kinda melt a little, especially as Tatiana hugged me and didn't want to let go. Finally peeling her off me, reluctantly, I handed her across to the paramedics for a checkup while we watched the uniforms search the place.

As we stood there in the living room of the apartment my cell rang, it was Mac. Their bust had been equally successful, one dead mobster and another freed child. They had a Russian speaker from the FBI with them and talking to the girl, Antonina; she told them that another mobster had taken the other child, a boy named Kirill; out to meet a client. They were putting the place under surveillance in hopes of catching him when they returned.

I was in the process of bringing Liv up to date when one of the mobster's cell phones beeped, indicating an incoming text. Pulling it off his belt I looked at the message which was in English

' _Answer the call police woman_ ' I looked at Liv in surprise as the phone started ringing. Her eyebrows lifted before she shrugged.

"Might as well" I hit answer and then speaker before I spoke.

"Hello?" The voice was clear and carried barely a hint of an accent.

" _Policewoman, what is your name?_ " I frowned then spoke.

"My name is Detective Beckett, NYPD"

" _And the other woman with you, who is she?_ " Startled, I looked up; meeting Liv's eyes as we shared the thought, there must be a camera somewhere. We both started looking round as Liv leaned in and spoke.

"Detective Benson, NYPD, who is this?" The voice was cold.

" _Both of you must feel very proud; you have caused me significant problems in the last week_ "

"Who is this?" My question was ignored for a moment; I could faintly hear a clicking sound before it hit me; a keyboard, then a voice.

" _Come now Detective Kate Beckett, you must have figured that out by now_ " More clicking sounds, he was probably Googling us. " _And that must be Detective Olivia Benson_ " I grimaced as I replied.

"Yeah, that's us, is that you Lysenko?" There was a humorless chuckle.

" _You are well informed detective, what are the names of the man and woman leading the group who have just raided another of my establishments?_ " Liv looked at me and leaned forward to make sure her voice was heard.

"We're tearing down your little operation and when we're done I'm going to enjoy seeing you rot in prison"

" _I think not detective_ " I chewed my lip for a moment then spoke.

"Lysenko, we will find you and I guarantee you will spend the rest of your life living in fear in prison, marked as a child trafficker and murderer unless you cooperate. We know about the poison you're using, if you provide samples of the suppressant, we can make a deal with the DA"

" _I am touched by your concern for my safety Detective Beckett but your concern is misplaced_ " I scowled at the cell in my hand as I spoke.

"I'm offering a deal Lysenko; take it while it's still on the table" The voice on the other end of the call was unpeterbed.

" _You will have to find and apprehend me Detective Beckett, something you will not do_ " I snorted and shot back at him.

"Think again, because we will catch you"

" _You are a very attractive woman Detective Beckett, or should I call you Kate. I have customers that would pay a significant amount to own you, to have you_ " I bit down on my first response, but Liv didn't.

"Listen you miserable son of a bitch, we will find you" Lysenko was unfazed.

" _Ah, Olivia, do not worry, you too are quite attractive for all that you are a little too masculine for my tastes. I have customers who would pay very well for the chance to tame you, to break you to their will_ " I felt like spitting, instead I leaned in to the phone and spoke, my voice harsh.

"Never going to happen, but if you think you want to try, bring it" Lysenko wasn't fazed, something his voice confirmed.

" _You would be surprised Kate, the poison is very painful in its later stages, enough so that you will do almost anything to make it stop. Anything at all_ " He chuckled. " _But I am sure you have already seen its effects_ " Liv's expression was as murderous as the tone of her voice.

"Find a deep dark hole and hide in it, because I'm going to find you and if you're lucky you'll die resisting arrest, because I'm going to make sure your life in prison is absolute hell" Lysenko was patently unimpressed.

" _I would look to your own safety detective, but thank you for your concern. Now if you will excuse me, I have customers waiting_ " The call ended abruptly.

We looked at each other for a second, before we looked up at the uniforms standing round listening in as I frowned and spoke.

"Don't just stand there, find that damned camera"


	24. Chapter 24

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 24**

 **O** **livia**

The mobster we had in hospital was a dead end, he worked for the Organizatsia, the Russian mob, apparently Lysenko and the mob had a reciprocal arrangement going, he stays away from their turf and helped them out occasionally, and in return they don't go after him. In this case the mobster was staying at the apartment while he found his own place to live.

The two men working for Lysenko knew a bit more but nothing really that we didn't already know. Both of them were off the plane from Russia, they'd been here for over six months, having each accompanied a pair of children into the US. They both tested positive for the toxin, as did all three kids.

Neither of the mobsters realised they'd been dosed, as far as they were aware, Lysenko would drop by, feed the kids their 'medicine' then sit and share a bottle of vodka with them, covertly dosing them with the suppressant.

There was some hope, the youngest of the kids we'd rescued, barely 13 year-old Antonina, had been dosed only two days ago, the most recent dosing we'd found so far. The mobster who'd been with her was dead after shooting it out, so we had samples from one living and one dead donor. Mac was down at the crime lab; his people were working with two dozen other labs across the country desperately trying to decipher and then synthesize the suppressant.

Jordan and I were sitting on the other side of the interrogation room mirror, watching as Kate tried to get some cooperation from the two mobsters. One of them quite obviously didn't believe a word she said, I may not speak Russian but even I understood what 'Nyet' meant. The other one was a bit smarter, I don't know what Kate was telling him, but he started to sweat, especially when Kate dropped a series of photo's showing the kids who'd died from the toxin, before spilling the beans; it turned out he didn't know all that much but we'd take what we could get. His info led us to an apartment on the East side, where he'd been staying, plus another garage downtown where we found another car, a stretch Lincoln.

Esposito and Ryan took the car, meeting up with some of Mac's team to process it, while Jordan, Kate and I took the apartment, backed up by some uniforms. It turned out to have been used to house three of the mobsters; we ended up with cash, some weapons, a pile of interesting but not terribly useful documents and not much else.

Walking out of the building, we were discussing splitting up to follow up what few leads we had when I felt something was wrong. For a split second I didn't know what it was but I was already reacting. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a car suddenly accelerate down the street towards us. Ever since that horrible night Alex had been shot, I've had a weird sixth sense about black SUVs with dark tinted windows, I can't help it, I noticed them everywhere. I'd put it down to justifiable paranoia, nothing more, until I caught this one suddenly racing down the road towards us. Spinning I saw a rear window was down and something was poking through it.

I recall screaming 'get down' at the top of my lungs as I dived at Kate and Jordan, hitting them both and knocking them flat as a spray of bullets passed straight through where we'd been standing a split second before. Fortunately it missed us but the uniform standing there wasn't so lucky, taking two slugs in the chest.

I rolled to my feet, my pistol in hand, but the SUV was rapidly disappearing down the street and rounded a corner in a squeal of tyres, it was too risky to fire, too many civilians in the line of fire if I missed the shot.

I turned to find Jordan and Kate kneeling by the officer, Jordan was working on getting his vest open, while Kate was on the phone yelling officer down and demanding a bus ASAP. The officer, Dylan Walsh, had taken the slugs in his vest, his chest was black and blue and he almost certainly had one or more broken ribs, but he was alive.

As we stood there, waiting for the EMTs, we looked at each other, eyes a little wide as the adrenalin wore off and we realised just how close it had been. Lysenko must have known his guy might roll over so he'd had someone staked out looking out for us, waiting for a shot. Kate shook her head, her voice a little shaky.

"Now we know what Lysenko meant about looking to our own safety" I nodded. Jordan looked up from the ruin of her skirt and spoke.

"Shame, I liked that skirt…" She looked me in the eye. "…but it's a lot better that it otherwise would have been. Thanks Liv" I tried to smile, not very successfully, as I replied.

"We'll just have to take the cost out of his hide when we catch him" I got nods from both of them as I looked around then felt the shakes start.

Reaction and shock, I was dealing with the wash of fear and adrenaline through my system, then its withdrawal. Looking at the others I could see they were dealing with it too, Jordan's normally pale complexion was far too white as she dealt with the near-death reality while Kate's hand was idly rubbing between her breasts where she'd been shot by a sniper a couple of years back, her mind turned inwards, trying to deal with it all over again.

For a moment I stood there then sagged back against a car, my legs a little shaky. Fortunately a few seconds later we heard the sound of sirens as black and whites and the EMTs headed our way. Less than a minute later the first uniforms were on the scene, followed closely by an ambulance; there's nothing like an 'officer down' call to get a fast response.

After seeing Walsh off to the hospital, we stood round for a while, giving our statements before, by unspoken consensus, we headed back to the 12th. We arrived to hear that Gates had already got the word; she gave us the third degree before backing off a bit but she did insist that for as long as we were working this case we would be wearing vests whenever out of the precinct, just in case Lysenko tried again.

We'd just finished with her when Espo, Ryan and Mac stampeded into the place; they'd heard and made their way back pronto. Gates delivered the same ultimatum to them, given we were all working this case, we could all be targets so everyone was wearing vests for the foreseeable future.

It was a testament on the state we were in that she got no argument from any of us.


	25. Chapter 25

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 25**

 **O** **livia**

The SUV was found less than an hour later half a dozen blocks away, the guys driving it had dumped it and switched to another vehicle. I didn't expect too much from the SUV's forensics; they'd probably wiped it clean or worn gloves, all to throw us off.

It might have worked too, except for the increasing institutional paranoia of New York City. After 9/11 and too many attempted terrorist attacks since, the number of surveillance camera's throughout Manhattan was increasing exponentially, it seemed they were everywhere. I know it bothered the civil libertarians and small government types, but in this case it was doing us a favour.

A surveillance camera half a block away had seen two guys bail out of the SUV and transfer themselves and a bag that probably contained the gun into a compact and drive off. Another camera in the direction they were going had recorded the vehicle and its plates, plus given us a direction. We had the traffic control centre pulling up traffic camera footage and we'd been able to follow it up till we lost it pulling into a multi-story car park on the west side where it was found abandoned not long after.

Fortunately a private security company's cameras covered the car park where it had been dumped so we'd seen them get into another SUV and head north, again the traffic camera's had allowed us to track it to a four block radius on the upper west side.

It'd gone in some three hours ago but not out so we flooded the area with unmarked cars, less than ten minutes later the SUV was found parked outside a row of tenements. We weren't sure which one was the one we wanted or even if they were inside, they might have switched cars again and we weren't sure how to find out, sure as hell Kate, Jordan and I couldn't just wander around and ask given the shooters knew what we looked like, plus there were no cameras covering the street.

Esposito came up with a plan though, dumping his vest and gear and wandering up the street a bit, sitting and chatting to a couple of old guys playing checkers over some tea outside a bodega. Five minutes later he wandered back to let us know which building they'd gone into.

"Those old guys sit there all day, nothing better to do than play and watch people come and go so they see everything that happens" I smiled and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Good work Javier" Kate and Mac were equally effusive, while Jordan just looked at him through narrowed eyes, nodding slowly. I could see her filing that one away for later use.

We got the super; Carmine, a fat, sweaty guy in a grubby wife-beater with ' _slum lord_ ' practically tattooed across his greasy forehead, out of his building and round the corner out of sight where we questioned him about his tenants. In return we got a long-winded diatribe about the numerous ethical, financial and psychological shortcomings of the people in his building. We tried to steer him in the right direction, but in the end just sat back and let him ramble, he seemed unable to keep to a single theme as I nodded from time to time, just letting it all flow.

"That's without them damned furriners in 203, why can't they speak American I ask ya? Almost impossible to understand those guys, good thing money talks all languages y'know wha I mean? Pay cash on time though, wish all o' them dead beats did, make my life easier lemme tell ya, y'know, too many of 'em have sob stories about why they can't pay, I tell ya, I heard 'em all in my time but not those furriners, they pay on time, too bad I don't have no more of 'em like them I tell ya…" I went to speak but Kate had got there first.

"You say they have an accent, what sort of accent?" His diatribe disrupted, Carmine looked confused then shrugged.

"Damned if I know, kinda hard to understand, why can't them furriners speak normal like us y'know?" This was delivered in an excruciatingly thick Brooklyn accent without a trace of irony. I raised an eyebrow and I wasn't the only one feeling it, seeing it mirrored in Jordan's, Javier's and Kevin's faces. Kate looked at me and shrugged, then turned to the super, speaking in an exaggerated Russian accent.

" _Do they sound somethink like this?_ " The super nodded.

"Yeah, kinda, only worse" Kate nodded and tried again, her thicker accent making the words almost unintelligible.

" _Wh_ _e_ _t ab_ _oot_ _s_ _u_ _m_ _t_ _hink more like th_ _es_ _then_ " Carmine nodded enthusiastically.

"That's it, that's exactly right" Kate turned to us.

"Russian and poorly educated, they probably learnt English late, hence the bad accent" We exchanged a look; they were almost certainly our targets. Jordan nodded.

"How many in there and how long have they been renting here?" He shrugged.

"Two guys, bout three months maybe, like I said they pay cash right on time y'know" I frowned, how were we going to get these guys without having the Emergency Services Unit team kick in the doors, these guys were willing to hose down three cops, they'd probably be happy to shoot it out. Looking at the others I rubbed my hands together.

"We need them to open the door, we want to take them down alive, I don't know about you but I really want to talk to these guys" I got nods from the others, before Mac smiled, turning to Carmine.

"Mr Carmine, how would you like to help us out?" He peered at us through suddenly beady eyes.

"How?" Mac smiled a little wider as he explained.

"All we need you to do is knock and tell them that there's going to be maintenance in the building and you've got a schedule when water, gas and electricity may be turned off and for how long. Once they open the door we'll do the rest" He shook his head slowly.

"That sounds kinda really dangerous, I dunno…" Kate smiled and chipped in.

"It beats us having to bust the door down and go in guns blazing. All that damage..." Jordan nodded, a small smile appearing as she added her bit.

"This way we avoid any shots being fired, which would turn it into a crime scene, could be a week or more before the investigations finished, then more time to fix the damage" She shrugged. "It could be a couple of weeks before you can rent the place out again" I had to swallow a smile at the crestfallen look on Carmine's face, time to appeal to his greed.

"Mr Carmine" He looked at me. "When did they last pay rent?" He shrugged as he replied.

"Last week, I get 'em to pay a month in advance, y'know, in case a they skip out or somefing" I smiled as I pressed the point.

"Well, this way, you help us get them, no damage to your apartment, we arrest them and you get to rent it out again immediately, while pocketing their rent money…" I let my voice trail as I saw the avarice replace the concern on his face.

"So okay, what you be wantin me to do?" Ten minutes later we were standing outside apartment 203 as Carmine knocked and called out.

"It's the super" A few seconds later a deeply accented voice answered.

"What you want?" Carmine was starting to sweat.

"We hafta do some work in the building, gotta turn off the water, gas and electricity couple a times" he looked at Kate and she nodded encouragingly as he pushed on. "I gotta list of tha times for each for ya"

Hearing the locks on the other side of the door being undone Carmine was unceremoniously dragged out of the way as the door opened. The guy who opened the door went to say something, to find himself face to face with Kate's Glock at a range of about three inches. His eyes almost went cross-eyed as he tried to focus as she pushed it into the bridge of his nose while muttering something in Russian.

Mac grabbed him and pulled him forward, Kate's gun still firmly planted between his eyes as he turned a horrible shade of white. I looked at Jordan, seeing she had her pistol ready too and we stepped into the apartment; low rent and cheap furniture to match, about what I'd expected. I could hear background noise coming from the main room, moving forward I could see another guy watching the television, his back to me. I flicked a glance at Jordan and got a nod as we moved closer, the noise from the television covering our footsteps.

I saw he had a pistol on the coffee table in front of him; hopefully he'd play it smart. Jordan stepped up and tapped him on the right shoulder as I moved to his left. He turned towards her, only to freeze as he saw her gun pointed right at him at a few inches distance.

He started to turn his head towards the pistol on the table when his head bumped into the barrel of my Glock, stopping him short. As I saw Esposito and Ryan move past, giving the place a quick sweep as I picked up the pistol on the table. Jordan motioned for him to stand as I pulled out the cuffs.

A few seconds later he was cuffed and on his knees as we shared a quiet look of relief. Both in the bag and no one hurt.

"You'll never guess what I found" It was Ryan, walking back into the room carefully carrying an AK-47 knock off in his gloved hands. I nodded.

"Lets get a ballistics comparison to the slugs from Walsh's vest; I'll bet it's a match"

"No bet" It was Kate; she'd wandered into the room and was looking down at the dining table. "I think these make it pretty clear it was them" She held up a set of prints showing Kate and I, obviously taken from the surveillance camera Lysenko had watched us through. The others showed Jordan and Mac at a place I didn't recognise, probably the other commercial property we'd raided. We traded a look as Mac spoke.

"Bingo"


	26. Chapter 26

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 26**

 **O** **livia**

We had both Russian's down at the precinct and in the interrogation rooms less than an hour after the bust. One of them spoke better English than the other so Mac and I took him while Kate and Esposito interrogated the other. Jordan meanwhile was chasing databases, looking to see if Interpol or other law enforcement agencies had anything on them

An hour later we'd given it up as a bad joke, he was refusing to talk, even though we had a match for the ballistics between the AK-47 assault rifle and the two slugs recovered from Dylan Walsh's vest, more than enough evidence to make a circumstantial case that'd send them both to jail for a very long time.

Kate hadn't had any better luck: her suspect had clammed up as well. We'd learnt more from what they weren't than what they were; a blood test on both of them confirmed they weren't carrying either the poison or the suppressant. We'd reconvened over a coffee, kicking things round and generally chasing our tails.

"All I can think of is that Lysenko didn't want to risk anymore of his own people, so he subcontracted the hit out to someone else" I said, getting nods from the others as Mac looked up from his coffee and spoke.

"Makes sense, why risk his own people when he could get someone else to do it, after all he's lost people lately and he can't have too many to spare" Kate turned from the coffee machine where she'd been making the last of the coffee's, her own.

"So if these guys aren't his people, who are they?" Ryan had appeared in the doorway as she spoke, nodding in apology as he broke into the conversation.

"Can't answer that but whoever they are, there's some money behind them" At our looks he leaned in the doorway. "Their phone call got them a lawyer, a high-priced lawyer" He pulled out a business card. "Michael Burger of Washington, Stopley and Callum" I didn't know the name but obviously Kate and Mac did as their eyebrows lifted. At my questioning look Mac explained.

"Washington, Stopley and Callum are a top flight criminal law firm Liv, they defend a lot of organised crime families" I grimaced in understanding, there were a few law firms that were basically organised crime's go-to-people, most lawyers looked down on them but they were very well paid to keep mobsters out of jail; Alex knew the type and despised them. I was about to say something when Jordan appeared, heading our way. I'd come to like her, she was smart and dedicated and funny and a damned good cop, even if she was working for the Feds. Kate saw her coming and turned back to the coffee machine; Shaw looked tired and probably needed the caffeine.

"Coffee coming up" Kate got a grateful nod in return.

"Bless you" She sat and looked round then continued. "Our boys are Organizatsia, the Russian mob" It wasn't a surprise; the Russian's were a growing presence in North American organised crime, ruthless and violent when they had to be. Mac looked at her.

"What'd you find?" Jordan looked round.

"Their prints are in the Interpol database, one's wanted for the murder of a Militia officer in Moscow, plus a string of assaults on pimps and prostitutes working for a Chechen organised crime family in Russia, part of a turf war there. The other has a string of warrants for assaults and rapes of prostitutes and he carved up their Chechen pimp when he objected, left him to bleed out on the street, so both of them are wanted for murder" She paused and shook her head. "Basically amoral thugs" Kate nodded from over at the coffee machine.

"Just the sort of people to get to gun down some cops" Jordan nodded slowly in agreement then pressed on.

"The Moscow police, the Militia, have outstanding warrants for both of them but they really want the mutt for their officer's death. When we're finished with them we can put them on a plane back home for them to deal with" She shrugged. "I don't like it but murder trumps attempted murder" I didn't like it either, but she was right, their crime had precedence, he'd killed a cop, so I doubt he was going to have a fun time back home. As for the other one, well Russian jails probably made ours look like resorts. Mac however was looking pensive.

"The Russian mob, that's not good" He looked round at us. "If Lysenko's got support from them we're looking at something much, much bigger than just a lone operator" I held up my hand, we didn't know yet, just supposition as I pointed out.

"If Mac, if. We don't know for sure" He shook his head.

"Well, we have to work on that assumption, at least for the time being" I looked around at the other two, Jordan was kinda pensive, Kate however just looked pissed, something her tone carried.

"Tell me we're not backing down on this just because there may be a connection to the Russian mob?" Mac held his hand up.

"Of course not, we just have to be a little careful, at least till we find out if they are involved, that's all" Kate was about to say something when she obviously noticed me nodding slowly, turning to look at me, a question in her eyes as she walked the last coffee over to Jordan, getting a grateful thanks in return. I saw it and smiled then spoke.

"Why don't we ask them?" Kate frowned and turned to me.

"Ask who?"

The Organizatsia" I shrugged as I explained. "Let's find out if they really are backing Lysenko or it's just a coincidence" Jordan looked at me, put her cup down and folded her arms on the table in front of her, skepticism all over her face.

"You're just going to call up the Organizatsia and ask them for their help?" I smiled.

"Hell no, I was thinking we'd go pay them a visit" Now it was Mac who was standing there with his arms folded, frowning darkly.

"And let me guess, you just happen to have them on speed dial?" My smile widened happily.

"Nope, but I bet the organised crime task force people do" His face had an ' _oh really_ ' expression, sketicism evident in both his voice and tone.

"So you're going to give them a call and ask for their public relations person, then ask them if their backing Lysenko?" I shrugged, knowing I was about to toss a cat amongst the pigeons.

"I was actually thinking we'd go ask Popov" I saw Kate swallow convulsively and then speak, the doubt clearly evident in her voice.

"Sergei Popov, you want to go talk to him?" I shrugged, though I wasn't as calm as I tried to sound.

"Like the consumer advocate people keep saying Kate, if you want to get something done, start at the top"


	27. Chapter 27

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 27**

 **O** **livia**

Sergei Alexander Popov wasn't what most people imagined when they thought of Russian mob bosses. He wasn't heavy set with tattoos, preferred aged scotch to vodka, didn't speak with an accent you could cut with a knife, was slim with the look of a runner, not a brawler and didn't pretend to be a Godfather wannabe.

Popov was a graduate of Harvard with an MBA in economics and another in business studies; more and more the Organizatsia had adopted business practices, moving from drugs and prostitution into white collar crimes like fraud, online gambling and embezzlement. Not that they didn't keep their hands dirty with the traditional activities, it was just that wasn't where they made the bulk of their money. Just because he affected the looks and manners of a Fortune 500 CEO didn't mean Popov didn't have a heart as black as sin, he just hid it better than most.

We were walking into Glechik Café in the heart of Little Odessa, down in Brighton Beach; public but still somewhere Popov would feel comfortable enough to meet us. A phone call to the NYPD's organised crime task force had led to a meeting with the task force's top people where we explained that we needed to talk to Popov.

After explaining why, a phone call had been made to the small hedge fund where Popov ostensibly worked, explaining that several detectives needed to have a social chat to him about a mutual acquaintance and suggesting the Café. I'd been surprised when he agreed immediately. Apparently his facade as an honest businessman meant he 'had nothing to hide'. Yeah right.

We arrived at the Cafe, where Kate's enquiry had us led to a table occupied by a man in his early-forties. He was dresed in a nicely tailored pinstripe suit, cuff links, conservative tie in red and blue, checking his Blackberry as we were walked over. I glanced around, taking in several rather hard-looking men sitting at nearby tables, not paying all that much attention to their coffee, tea and pastries and paying way too much attention to us. Kate caught my eye and nodded slightly, she'd seen them too.

"Ladies, a pleasure to meet such attractive public servants, truly I'm flattered" Popov stood, shaking our hands and inviting us to sit, not sitting again until we were both seated. I looked at Kate and she nodded for me to go ahead.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet us Mister Popov, we appreciate your time" He nodded easily, a smile in his voice.

"Please call me Sergei" He smiled like this was a pleasant chance meeting. I shook my head as I replied.

"Perhaps Mister Popov is best as we have business to discuss" He raised an eyebrow before nodding slowly as I noticed the light catching from a ring he was wearing on his right middle finger, silver, it had an engraved symbol in its face, something I couldn't quite recognise.

"As you wish, it is not every day that I receive a call from the NYPD asking me to meet with two detectives" He looked at me appraisingly. "Especially not one of their most effective sex crimes detectives…" His gaze flicked over Kate. "…nor one of their best homicide detectives so I am intrigued as to what you would want with a financier like me?"

"Mister Popov, we are familiar with both your public and private roles, however that is not why we are here" He nodded, obviously unfazed, and replied.

"So what brings us out here on such a lovely morning, surely it is not just the excellent coffee here, speaking of which..." He raised his hand and a waitress was there immediately. Popov was a gentleman, politely passing our orders, coffee for me and tea for Kate, to the attending waitress as we declined pastries, before she moved away.

"You were about to tell me what brings you here..." He prompted. Kate nodded once. We'd agreed she'd do most of the talking.

"It's about a sometimes business acquaintance of yours Mister Popov. Viktor Illyich Lysenko" Popov frowned.

"I have heard the name but he is not personally familiar to me" Kate nodded agreeably as she continued.

"He is a former member of the KGB, like many such men he found himself looking for other work after the world changed. He chose to go into child sex trafficking, bringing in Russian children to New York and selling them out to whoever would pay his prices" Popov nodded slowly as he spoke.

"There are many such men, they chose to use their skills and knowledge for many things, many of them illegal" Kate nodded.

"We understand that however in this case we are investigating the actions of Lysenko" He nodded once as he replied.

"It is said that you appear to be having some success in closing his operations down" I nodded and took up the thread.

"Some, yes. You are, as expected, well informed. However I am certain that he is attempting to regroup, to continue his operations" Popov nodded slowly and looked at me as he spoke.

"Such a man will not go quietly; as I am sure you are aware" Kate frowned as she replied.

"Indeed we are, in fact an attempt was made to gun us down on a city street only yesterday" Popov's eyes widened slightly before he spoke.

"I am pleased that they did not succeed" I looked at him and raised an eyebrow in disbelief. He shrugged as our coffee and tea arrived.

"I have no quarrel with either of you, why should I wish you harm" We waited until the waitress had left before Kate spoke again.

"Perhaps it was because the men who tried to gun us down were Orginazatsiya. Your men Mister Popov" There was silence for more than ten seconds as he looked at us before finally he spoke

"I was not aware of this, honestly I was not" He looked down into his tea for a moment, before his attention returned to us. "The organisation is a very large one, not every action undertaken by an individual or individuals is either known of or sanctioned, that is true in this case" Kate blinked once then spoke, her voice low but firm.

"Mister Popov, I would dearly like to believe you. I would. The alternative is that one of the largest organised crime factions on the East Coast wants me and my partners dead. That would be a tragedy for everyone" Popov was silent for a moment before picking up his metal and glass tea cup and sipping it quietly. Finally I leaned forward and spoke.

"If it was true, that would mean that not only is your organisation looking to start a war with the NYPD, it would also be involved in one with the FBI" Popov's eyes widened slightly as he put down his cup.

"I seek no quarrel with the Bureau, I assure you" He said as I shrugged, trying to convey a nonchalance I didn't feel.

"Well that drive-by almost took out one of the Bureau's top investigators, I can assure you that they wouldn't see it the same way" Popov nodded slowly as I pushed a little harder. "If we find any more involvement of your people in this matter then we'll have no choice but to assume that you are somehow involved in supporting Lysenko, which would be bad for everyone concerned, especially you" Popov sat back in his chair, his voice turning suddenly colder.

"Are you threatening me Detective Benson?" I shook my head once quickly; I needed him to see it from another perspective.

"No, just reminding you that if it were to become known that your organisation was involved in something that's led to the slow, painful deaths of eight young children so far, the witch hunt that'd follow that being made public would make both your public and private lives… difficult" He went to say something but I cut him off. "In addition, both Beckett and I have achieved some level of recognition amongst our fellow officers. If something was to happen to us that could be traced back to your organisation then you would have the full weight of the department's 35,000 cops come down on you, which I'm sure you'd agree would be bad for business" Popov sat back and nodded slowly, his manner cool. Finally he spoke.

"I can see that such a situation is in neither of our interest's detective. What do you seek from me?" I tapped the table in time with my words.

"Pull your support from Lysenko, cut any contact you have with him, no help in any form to be given to him and his people, that's all we ask" I saw Popov's eyes narrow slightly as he heard my words, he'd obviously expected something else, something more. Kate nodded and spoke; she had my back as always.

"That way when we take him down, there will be no ties to be followed back to your organisation, which would be in your interests as much as ours" Popov slowly spun his Blackberry where it sat on the table, clearly considering our request.

"I see, and is that all you would ask of me?" Kate leaned forward; bringing her eyes closer to his but her voice was low and calm.

"Mr Popov, when this story fully breaks, the public will be baying for blood, the hue and cry will be such that the politicians will have no choice but to act, there'll be investigations, the media will be sniffing around, people will be looking for connections to what's happened. Better to have no ties to Lysenko given the coming storm" He nodded slowly and was silent for a time, before looking between us and speaking.

"You make a compelling case. However if I was to do as you request, I would have several things I would require of you" Kate and I exchanged a look before I nodded and spoke up.

"Go on" He leaned forward slightly, his voice low but clear.

"You will make it clear that Lysenko was not affiliated with nor part of any larger group, that he acted as a lone agent" We shared another look before Kate nodded, prompting Popov to push on. "Secondly, Lysenko must not be taken alive" He shrugged, smiling slightly. "As the old saying goes, dead men tell no tales" Kate frowned as I contemplated what he was asking before Kate shook her head and spoke.

"We can't guarantee that, he has information we're desperately seeking" Popov nodded once.

"Ah yes, you seek the formula to the poison's antidote do you not" I sat up straighter, could he…

"Do you have it?" His eyes flicked to me as he answered.

"Sadly I do not" He wasn't helping so I pushed.

"Can you get it?" He waved his hand across the table in a negative gesture, as if wiping away the possibility.

"My influence only goes so far, I am unable to help you there" I frowned ' _Fuck_ '. Kate's voice was quiet but hard as steel.

"Then we will be trying to take him alive, we need that suppressant. Eight kids are dead, there are at least six more we haven't found yet, we need him alive to give up the formula" As Popov frowned at us I came to a decision; leaning forward I spoke quietly.

"Once we capture Lysenko, he will be interrogated and kept in holding in the precinct under 24 hour round-the-clock guard. However when we have finished interrogating him, he will be transferred to the normal prison population to await a trial" Kate's eyes widened as she realised what I was saying; Popov just nodded once as I continued, his eyes hooded. "Your organisation's reach is well known, I think we could leave that problem to you at that point" Popov sat back and looked at us both, then slowly nodded, a tiny smile appearing.

"I see, yes that would be acceptable" Kate sat back.

"And Lysenko?" He waved his fingers in a dismissive motion as he spoke.

"He will be an outcast, with no support, no assistance and no refuge" I nodded.

"No freelancing by your people, no plausible deniability. He gets no help whatsoever" His eyes grew hard.

"Such is my guarantee" I nodded; taking the word of a mob boss, what was the world coming too? I nodded slowly.

"Thank you Mister Popov" Kate's eyes flicked to me before she rose.

"Good day Mister Popov" I stood as well, as Popov rose and held out his hand.

"It was a pleasure to meet you both. Good luck in your hunt" We shook hands though I felt like I was touching slime. He looked us both over once again.

"By the way, I specialize in financial planning. If either of you are looking to secure your long term financial independence, please come and see me, I am sure we could arrange something…appropriate for officers such as yourselves"

I just nodded curtly as Kate smiled; a cold gesture that didn't reach her eyes. I'd seen that look before, a long time ago, just before she'd pistol whipped a punk holding a knife and threatening us, splitting his face wide open and leaving him with a deep permanent scar across half his face. Popov's bare-faced offer to put us on his payroll was just begging for the same treatment.

"I doubt that will be necessary Mr. Popov, but thank you for your…offer" With that Kate and I left the Café and made our way back down Coney Island Avenue towards our car, saying nothing until we got in.

"Jesus Liv…" Kate started the car and we drove off as I shook my head then replied.

"I know Kate, now I know about what they mean about supping with the devil" I shook my head slowly. "Let's hope he's good for it"

"Yeah, let's hope" She looked over at me. "Did you notice the signet ring he was wearing?" I looked at her curiously.

"Yeah, but I couldn't quite recognise it" She glanced at me then back to the road as she replied.

"I did, it's the two-headed eagle, long a symbol of Russia" I nodded, not quite getting it.

"Yeah, so?" I got another look then back to the road as she spoke.

"The one he has isn't the one the Russian Federation uses now, it's a much older one; it's a symbol I saw in lots of museums in Russia when I was there" I nodded slowly, not seeing where she was going with this and prompted her.

"And…" She looked my way and smiled, a little crookedly.

"That's the symbol used by Ivan the Terrible, one of the most ruthless and brutal of the Tsars, he ruled by a combination of charm, fear and oppression" I sat back and thought about the symbolism for a moment, the shook my head slowly as I replied.

"Hell of a role model" She nodded but said nothing. We were well on our way back into Manhattan when she spoke once more.

"I don't know about you, but I think I need to stop off home on the way back to the precinct" I looked back at her.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I think I need a shower and a change of clothes" I thought about it for all of two seconds, she was right. Dealing with Popov had left me feeling soiled.

"Good call, can we swing by Alex's place afterwards? I need one too" We exchanged a quiet look, one that spoke volumes before I spoke once more. "We'll get him Kate" She looked back at me, not bothering to smile.

"I know Liv, let's hope it's soon enough" The rest of the drive to their loft was quiet.


	28. Chapter 28

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 27**

 **Jordan**

I was sitting at Beckett's desk in the 12th, enjoying yet another cup of good coffee, I could get used to them to be honest; my office had nothing like this, but then I wasn't involved with a millionaire author either.

So far, given all that'd happened we had a good handle on the case. I'd just got off a phone hookup with representatives from Immigration and Homeland Security, thanks to the information Tori Ellis had supplied, when the holders of those six tickets arrived here in the states there'd be a warm welcome waiting for them. Meanwhile we'd had some progress in other areas too.

The blood-soaked clothes we'd found in the Hummer had been identified; DNA matching said one set did belong to Syme, the other, the set we assumed belonged to Lysenko, consisted of top end labels so Taylor had his people running down where they might have been bought. The lab had also confirmed that Lysenko's prints had been found in the car and on the baseball bat, so we could tie him to the killing, the blood on the clothes and bat had been matched to Syme by the lab so there was enough right there for a murder conviction.

Benson had already stated that her partner Alex Cabot had volunteered to prosecute the case when it came to trial, given her reputation and track record plus our evidence, I didn't doubt that Lysenko would go away for the rest of his miserable existence. Thinking of Cabot turned my thoughts to our little group; they sure were a mixed bunch.

Taylor had been a detective, a good one according to his record, before he'd moved to the crime lab. Since then under him it had built a reputation as one of the most effective in the country with a truly enviable closure rate. I know the Bureau had scouted some of his people but they had displayed considerable loyalty to their unit and boss, most turning us down. That in itself was interesting, not too many turned down a job with the Bureau, the prestige and the resources available were usually enough of an incentive but not with his people.

Beckett and her team were good too, they worked together really well; the sort of teamwork that comes from a long time working together and good working relationships. They had complimentary skills and weren't afraid to use their initiative, something I admired. In a way it was a shame Beckett's partner Richard Castle wasn't here, for all that he could often be annoying and sometimes a little aggravating, he worked exceptionally well with Beckett and her team, adding to their ability to look over all the possibilities. Having seen them work together I wasn't surprised he and Beckett had ended up involved, they were very close even before then, even though Beckett had tried to play it cool.

Benson on the other hand was nothing like cool, she was all fire to Beckett's ice. According to her record she and Beckett had worked the beat as uniformed cops years before, that partnership was still in evidence today, they meshed together really well, each complimenting the other. A good thing really as Benson was getting way too involved in this case, though that shouldn't surprise me, her file was full of incidents where she'd gotten emotionally involved with cases.

I frowned at that thought, I suppose I couldn't really judge her though, I handled serial killers and kidnappings which were bad enough, she dealt with sex crimes, too many of which were against children; as a mother I couldn't understand someone abusing a child, let alone their own. Benson had been dealing with that for more than a decade; I was surprised she was still there and not burnt out, though I could see some signs of it in her handling of the case.

She was a little too reckless, a little too willing to go the extra step in this case, if she wasn't careful she could end up dead or injured, pushing too far into a situation where things could go wrong. Her little expedition to talk to Popov was a case in point. While I doubted too much would come of it, the very fact she was willing to do it in the first place was telling enough. Fortunately Beckett had gone with her, so she should be able to keep things calm, or at least I hoped so.

An hour later they walked in, according to them both it had gone surprisingly well.

"Popov told us that the attempted hit on us was not a sanctioned Organisatzia job, some of his people taking the job on the side" Taylor nodded and prompted them.

"So?" Benson took up the tale.

"He has promised to pull all the Organisatzia's resources from Lysenko, the word's going out as we speak, no support, no freelancing, Popov's cut off from any help from that direction" I nodded skeptically, then put that skepticism into words.

"And you believe him?" They shared a glance before Beckett nodded once.

"Yeah, actually I do" She said, the continued. "We pitched it that he didn't want any trace of his people's involvement in this case, that when we wrap this up the media's going to go completely nuts and start digging, something he'd want to be well away from" Benson nodded and backed up Beckett, not that I expected anything else from either of them.

"Yeah, he's slimy piece of shit but he thinks of himself as a business man first, criminal scumbag a long way second" Benson shrugged eloquently, accurately conveying what she thought of that. "Go figure; anyway he sees that assisting Lysenko's going to be bad for business with no commensurate return to the Organisatzia, so better to make sure there's no connection to the case that can lead back to him"

I sat back and thought that through, I didn't like relying on the word of a crime lord, let alone one as powerful as Popov, but on the other hand Beckett and Benson had stared the man down, looked into his eyes and negotiated a deal so I suppose I had to place my faith in them. As I was thinking it through Taylor must have been thinking it through and tripped over that word, deal.

"What does Popov want in return?" Benson and Becket exchanged another glance before Beckett spoke.

"He wants us, when we wrap this up; to make it clear publically that Lysenko is a lone wolf, not affiliated with the Organisatzia, or any other organised crime group for that matter, basically keeping his people well out of the story" I exchanged a look with Taylor as he pulled a face then looked at me with a question easily read in his face. I thought about it for a second then nodded once; I could live with that if he could. Taylor looked at me for a second more then turned to the other two.

"Given it appears, at this point, that Lysenko is freelancing then I can live with that" He held his hand up before they could speak and continued. "If we find out that's not true or that's Popov's playing us for fools, then all bets are off"

Beckett and Benson nodded easily before Benson spoke.

"Can't argue with that"


	29. Chapter 29

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 2** **9**

 **Olivia**

Both Jordan and Mac had some questions about Popov, basically curious about what one of America's biggest criminal bosses was actually like. Kate and I tried to fill them in, how he tried to portray himself as an honest businessman, but the cold darkness that lurked there was never far under the surface. When Kate mentioned he'd offered to help us with 'our retirement plans', a blatant attempt to put us on his payroll, Jordan had laughed herself silly at that.

"Obviously he didn't do quite enough digging, I mean anyone who's involved with either Rick Castle or Alex Cabot isn't susceptible to bribery" I nodded, she was right, though Alex's money wasn't ever of interest to me, if anything it had been an impediment to our relationship, I mean she was fabulously wealthy and I was just a cop. I knew Kate fell much the same too but she just smiled and played it off.

"Yeah, if I need to go shopping I just tell Castle to go write another best seller" Mac smiled along with the rest of us then spoke.

"Just make sure that if he uses any of us in one of his story's, we're either so well camouflaged that no one would recognise us, or he makes us sound amazingly smart and handsome" I sniggered as Jordan smiled and kicked the can a little further down the road.

"Yes please Kate, let Castle know I'd be happy with a description including the words, stunning, beautiful, genius and rich please" Kate smiled happily at the banter and played along a bit.

"No promises, but I'll take it up with Rick when he gets back"

We chatted for a little longer before I looked up at Kevin's voice to see him walking in. Kate turned and gave him a tired smile.

"Kevin, tell me you got something, anything" He grimaced.

"I take it you don't have much yet?" We all shook our heads. "I might" He wandered over to the whiteboard and moved a few things round making some space.

"You know that pre-paid cell phone number we pulled off the chat room site?" We all nodded. "I traced the sale to a store up in Hudson Heights, Moscow on the Hudson it's called, which just happens to have a security camera. I got to have a look at the footage and guess who?" He found a magnet and pinned a grainy picture of a man standing at a counter; grainy but recognisable as Lysenko. Turning back to us Ryan smiled. "Owner remembers him, he's been in reasonably regularly, each time he buys a pre-paid cell, plus a whole heap of Russian delicacies, he figured the guy gets homesick for a taste of the old country" We nodded, it wasn't uncommon for immigrants to pine for the tastes they were used to. Mac frowned.

"So we know where he buys stuff occasionally, how does that help?" Ryan's smile widened.

"Normally it wouldn't, but he walks his dog there, you can't see it in the photo but it's tied up outside while he's in buying stuff. The owner says he dotes over it" I nodded slowly.

"If he's walking his dog to the store then he's close enough to walk there" Kevin nodded as Jordan stepped up.

"What kind of dog?" Kevin shot her an amused glance.

"A Lab, why?" Jordan smiled.

"We have a golden retriever, Goldie, short for Goldilocks" At our amused looks she held up her hand. "Not my choice, my daughter picked the name. It's really her dog, we just feed it, house it and pay the…"

"Vet bills!" It was Kate, grinning happily. "Yes, it'd have to go to the vet" Jordan smiled and tilted her head in acknowledgement.

"Exactly, we need to talk to any vets in the area, see who had a Labrador in there in the last year who matches Lysenko's description" We all nodded, it made sense. Mac stood and stretched.

"We'll start the canvas in the morning" With that there was general agreement to call it a night.

As I walked out, Kate called to me.

"Hey Liv, you up for dinner, it's my treat; or are you heading straight home to Alex?" I shook my head, I'd like to but I really wanted to go look in on the kids we'd rescued.

"I might beg off Kate, for tonight at least" I shrugged as she spoke.

"Oh well, say hi to Alex for me" I shook my head.

"She's working back, doing prep for a big trial tomorrow" Kate just looked at me, her eyes searching me out.

"Ok, you heading home then?" I couldn't lie to her, she'd been my partner for three years, plus she was someone I really cared about.

"I'm gonna swing by the hospital, check on the kids" She looked at me for a few seconds, as I felt like looking away and then nodded slowly.

"Sounds like an excellent idea. C'mon" I stood there.

"Aren't you heading home?" She shrugged like it was no big deal.

"Castle's not there, Alexis is away at college and Martha's visiting an old acting friend in Los Angeles, might as well spend the time with a friend, besides, I think we'll both need the support at the hospital" I looked down as I swallowed a lump. How the hell did I ever deserve a friend like Kate? She must have seen it because she linked her arm through mine and drew me with her.

"C'mon, we'll stop by this great café I know, Remy's; grab some food then head into the hospital." She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. "How's that sound?" I looked at her and stopped, pulling her to a stop with me. She was writing her evening off to support me, before I knew it I was clinging to her in a hug, her arms around me.

"Thank you Kate, thank you" We stood there for a moment as I tried to deal with the emotions running through me. I looked up into her hazel eyes, seeing the shy smile there. She looked at me and ducked her head.

"C'mon, we might as well eat, it's been a long day" I nodded slowly.

"That it has, that it has" We started walking towards her car as she bumped shoulders with me before grinning.

"Did I ever tell you about the time Castle and I almost ended up as a tiger's dinner?" I laughed, just as she'd planned.

"Nope, I'd remember if you had"

"Oh, your gonna love this one Liv, its right up there with the zombie case and the ghost hunter case for weird" Smiling we walked off into the night.


	30. Chapter 30

As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders, and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us.

 **Breaking Barriers 30**

 **Kate**

The next few days were hard, the investigation had kinda stalled, we'd not turned up much more and the three kids we'd rescued, Stepan, Tatiana and finally Antonina had each died. They'd each been horrible but Antonina had been especially bad for everyone, she'd been barely 13, to see her life end like that, it'd left us all affected, Liv in particular was taking it hard. I knew she and Alex wanted to have kids and for her to see three beautiful children die like that, well none of us were coping all that well.

Unfortunately none of the labs were close to synthesising either an antidote or the suppressant, it was looking like we'd have to extract the information from the source and for that we needed Lysenko.

With little else to go on we'd turned to locating Lysenko's vet; a two-day canvas of every vet and animal hospital in Manhattan had eventually turned up the one that treated Lysenko's Labrador; the Washington Heights Animal Hospital located in the next suburb to the one where he bought his Russian delicacies. The vet in question was more than happy to help out; it didn't hurt that his daughter was an EMT and married to a cop up in New Hampshire.

He recognised Lysenko from photo's the uniforms showed him and we were on site within 20 minutes of getting the call. Talking to the vet, an older guy named Alex Masters, it became apparent that Lysenko doted on the Labrador, named Sobaka which made sense given it was Russian for dog; bringing it in for check ups and shots meticulously; buying it treats and toys each time.

I'd kinda shaken my head at that, how could a despicable piece of human filth like Lysenko treat his dog so well but be so callous to everyone else around him? I looked over at Jordan who was standing there, outwardly impassive, she was an outstanding criminal profiler and I was sure I could get a technically correct answer from her but to be honest I wasn't sure I wanted to hear it.

We got a cell phone and a mailing address, the mailing address was a post office box but the phone turned out to be a real lead. We followed up with the phone company to discover that it was only intermittantly used, being turned off most of the time and therefore they didn't have any records that could help us pin it down. I'd thought that was a dead end but Shaw had smiled a little enigmatically then pulled out her cell and spoken to someone at the Bureau's technical division about the problem, relaying the phone details we had. They'd gone off and apparently done some tech magic, pulling up records that the phone company either didn't have or hadn't kept. 45 minutes later they'd rung back with the GPS coordinates of two locations that had corresponded to the most common points the phone had been used from.

Checking out the locations one had turned out to be Bennett Park in Hudson Heights however the second was a rented condo not far away on Fort Washington Avenue. We spoke to the super who confirmed Lysenko's identity from an image so we'd put it under surveillance for the rest of the day. Unfortunately no one was spotted going in or coming out, though there was a car space with a high end Range Rover parked in it and a quick DMV check showed it was registered to one of those shell companies in the Caymans. The bastard was nothing if not consistent.

Finally we decided he wasn't going to show and sent the tactical assault team in, they'd cleared the place but the only resistance was a golden retriever who'd practically licked the tactical guys to death, something I could understand as I stood in the lounge room and looked down at the furry blonde lump sitting there with a rubber ball in its mouth, practically begging me to throw it. I squatted down and he dropped the slightly wet ball into my outstretched hand before I sent it rolling across the floor, the dog happily bounding after it. A small commotion at the door announced the arrival of the CSI team who were going to go over the place with a fine tooth comb.

The dog returned and dropped the ball at my feet, tail wagging happily as I gave it a pat and spoke to it.

"Good Sobaka, aren't you a clever boy" I got an even more frenzied tail wagging as Liv cocked an eyebrow at me while Shaw smiled and spoke.

"Oh he likes you Kate" I shrugged as I sent the ball off into the kitchen.

"Unfortunately we have a no pet's clause in our lease" Mac walked in from the bedroom and added his comment.

"A shame, he looks friendly enough" As if to reinforce the point the dog came trotting back, tail wagging happily. I was about to toss the ball again when the land-line phone rang as we all froze. There was a rapid exchange of glances as it went to the answering machine and I heard an all too familiar voice through the machine's speaker.

"Pick up the phone I know you are there Detective" We shot each other ' _what the hell_ ' looks before I grabbed the handset and after a second, hit the speaker button and spoke up as the others gathered round.

"This is Beckett, what do you want Lysenko?" He didn't mince words.

"I know you have found my house and my dog" There was a small pause as my eyes started scanning for a surveillance camera and seeing none as the others did the same before Lysenko continued. "I ask you to arrange for him to be well looked after. As for you Detective Beckett, enjoy your little triumph for you and your fellow police will soon be dead"

The call cut off with a decisive click as we stared at each other before Mac started out the door, already calling for every uniform there.

"He's gotta be close, you've all got pictures of Lysenko, everyone start looking for him" We each grabbed several uniforms and combed the local area for almost an hour but turned up nothing for our efforts, he'd slipped away again.

We ended up heading back to the precinct, Sobaka in tow, given we couldn't leave him there while the CSI team tore the place apart, besides everyone had kinda taken a shine to the oversized furry goofball, he obviously loved people and was fun to be around, lord knows we'd not seen much of that so far in this miserable case.

Gates eyebrows had leapt skywards as we'd walked in with him on a lead but Jordan had just shrugged and said the magic word.

"Evidence"


	31. Chapter 31

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 31**

 **Olivia**

We were sitting around the conference room in the 12th having a case review meeting while we awaited a report from Mac's techs on everything they'd processed from Lysenko's condo.

For a criminal scum he'd sure known how to live the high life, the place looked like something out of good housekeeping, his kitchen and closets full of top shelf labels, I'm no high-end shopper like Alex, but I know names like Wedgewood crockery, Jamie Oliver cutlery, Burberry coats, Phillipe Patek watches, Testoni dress shoes, Nike runners, hand-tailored suits and shirts and the like, Lysenko obviously liked to live large on the proceeds of selling children to scum.

I shook my head, wondering how long he'd last in prison, if Popov's people didn't get to him; well I was pretty certain some member of the prison population would show him exactly what they thought of people pimping out 13-year old children. Either result was surprisingly okay to me; I just wanted this bastard to pay for his crimes.

We'd taken a quick break for runs to the bathroom and the coffee machine; I was the first one back when there was a rap on the door from a uniformed officer accompanied by a DHL guy, though you were hard pressed to see him from around the huge array of red roses in their own decorative box arrangement. The uniform, a pretty blonde named Anne Hastings, smiled.

"Delivery of roses for Beckett, courtesy of Castle, naturally" I smiled and waved her towards the conference room table.

"Naturally, might as well put them on the table please" The DHL guy dropped them there and collected a signature before heading out as I admired the flowers, the arrangement was huge and beautiful, Kate really was lucky. Jordan and Mac walked in and noted the flowers as Mac spoke.

"You got a secret admirer Benson?" I smiled at his teasing tone.

"Nope, Kate's not so secret boyfriend, Castle sent them" They nodded as Jordan smiled and spoke.

"Nice, he did have good taste, no matter how annoying he could be" We were about to recommence when Kate breezed in and saw the bouquet.

"Nice flowers, whose are they?"

"Apparently yours, from Castle" Kate immediately froze; I didn't miss the suddenly narrowed eyes as she stared at the arrangement, then spoke.

"Castle never sends me red roses, he only ever gives them to me in person; he says red roses are to be given in person, like the sentiment. When he sends me flowers they can be anything else, but never, ever red" She looked round the room. "Which florist delivered them?" I shrugged.

"It was a DHL guy" She looked round and spotted the courier near the lifts as the doors opened, in a second she was out of the room and yelling.

"Hey, grab him, somebody grab that courier" She started running towards the elevator, calling out ahead. "Karpovsky, grab him!" The curly-haired female detective I'd met a few days before turned at Kate's call, then spun round surprisingly fast, slamming her hand between the closing doors of the elevator, making them slide open again. In seconds we had the courier in hand and started asking questions.

It turned out he really was a DHL guy, something his photo ID and a quick phone call confirmed. He'd got the call to make a pick up from outside a house in Queens, when he'd turned up a guy in a nice suit and a long coat had been waiting, handing the flowers over, in fact he'd paid more for an express delivery. There was a rapid exchange of glances and "oh shit" moments amongst everyone before we all turned to the flowers. Carefully Kate and I moved the pile of leaf and blossoms to one side, looking inside, packed around the stems of the roses was a pile of greyish-coloured packages and wires. Mac joined us and peered in then spoke; his voice low and concerned.

"Oh Christ, that's C4! We gotta get everyone out of here now"

In seconds we were all yelling, telling everyone to get the hell out of the building. Gates was already out of her office, demanding to know what was going on, right up until she heard the word bomb; then she was pushing people into the stairwells as fast as we could cram them, all the while calling the cops upstairs on her cell and telling them to evacuate as well.

Mac was on the phone to the bomb squad as we looked around, the floor was empty except for him, Kate, Jordan, Ryan, Esposito and Gates. I ran my eye over the big bouquet of flowers, the box they were sitting in was big enough to hold a lot of explosives; it was time for everyone here to get the hell out. I started to herd everyone towards the fire escape when Ryan looked back over his shoulder and started protesting.

"The evidence..." I shook my head as Kate spoke quickly.

"Is not worth anyone's life, c'mon" I paused in mid-step and glanced back over my shoulder, then turned back and started running.

"Liv, what the hell are you doing?" It was Kate. "Liv?" Given Lysenko had paid for a rapid delivery, I didn't think we had enough time to wait for the bomb squad, it'd probably go up before they got here, costing us everything, every piece of evidence we had was within thirty feet of that bomb, we couldn't lose it all. I started making my way back towards the flowers, Ryan was right; if it went up we'd lose everything. Kate must have realised what I was thinking.

"Liv, it's not worth it!" I skidded to a stop in front of the flowers, so innocuous sitting there on the conference room table. Glancing back at her I saw her staring at me, Mac and Jordan doing the same from the doorway to the stairwell. Taking a deep breath I reached out and lifted the box, besides surprising me with its weight nothing else happened. I turned towards the fire escape.

"Get everyone well away from the exit" They stared at me, eyes flicking to the flowers, then back to me as my anxiety flared. "Don't just stand there, move it!" Jordan and Mac both nodded and bolted as the fire door closed behind them. Kate was standing there, obviously appalled.

"You crazy bitch, what the hell are you doing?"

"Just open the door Kate, I have both hands full" She nodded and turned, running for the fire escape and pulling the door open as I carefully moved as quickly as I dared towards the exit. Once inside I started down the fire stairs, thanking God the building had an internal one; I wouldn't want to try doing this down one of the old external ones. Kate followed me down before quickly moving past me at the landing halfway down, carefully not to bump me as she did, heading for the ground floor door exiting out into the alleyway alongside the building and holding it open for me.

Seeing the light streaming in the open door made me move faster, emerging into the daylight, seeing Mac and Jordan waving people back away from the door towards the alley's ends, something that became so much easier as everyone saw what I was carrying.

Five steps and I was in the middle of the alley, carefully bending and placing the flowers on the bitumen, then stepping back, Kate was already backing away.

"C'mon Liv, let's get out of here" She didn't have to tell me twice. I chased her at a dead run out of the alley, turning the corner and almost running into Gates and Mac.

"Sweet Jesus Benson, what were you thinking?" It was Gates. "You could have been killed" I nodded, still trying to pull in air, my heart was hammering and I felt like I'd run a race.

"If it went off, not only would we lose our entire evidence collection, every other detective on the floor would have too" I managed to catch enough of my breath to smile. "This way it won't do too much damage if it goes off" Gates just shook her head, then spoke.

"That was a damn fool thing to do, no evidence is worth your life" I shrugged.

"As it turned out we had plenty of time" She was about to say something when a deafening boom resounded, a blast of heat and light followed by the sound of shattering glass as a hail of shrapnel whined past us out of the alley, peppering two blue and whites parked across the road with a myriad of holes. When we all stopped cringing and stood back up Kate just gave me 'the look' then spoke, her voice dripping with irony.

"Sure Liv, plenty of time" Gates was singularly unimpressed.

"Sergeant Benson, that was a remarkably reckless thing to do, you could have been killed during that mad stunt of yours" She was off and running as I was left to nod at the appropriate places, I sure wasn't able to get a word in edgewise. I have to say she was remarkably inventive, cataloguing my various personal, physical, psychological and social shortcomings, all without repeating herself. I could see Kate exchanging a look with Mac and Jordan behind her back, obviously happy to not be the one on the receiving end for a change. It didn't last long as Gates turned suddenly and the spotlight was back on Kate.

"Detective Beckett, I want any and all resources necessary on this case, I want this suspect, Lyso-something you said?"

"Lysenko" It was Mac, trying to be helpful, and failing. Gates barely spared him a glance.

"Yeah, him, I want him Beckett, you hear me?" I'd managed to calm down enough to notice Sobaka crouched down next to Hasting's legs, obviously a bit scared though she was working on calming him down.

"Yes Sir" Gates hadn't really calmed down from dressing me down; she was still in a rage.

"In our house god damn it! In! Our! House! I want him found, you hear me Detective?" As Kate went to speak she looked round at the rest of us. "Do you all hear me?" There were nods all round. She nodded once. "Then what the hell are you all doing standing round here, find him" There was a round of 'Yes Sirs" before we started to turn away, Gates' voice called me back. "Oh Benson" I turned back.

"Sir?" She nodded once.

"Good work" She stared at me for a moment, then nodded again. "Dismissed"


	32. Chapter 32

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 32**

 **Kate**

We were back in our office, the engineers having given us the all clear to head back inside after checking the building's structural integrity. The bomb squad guys had told us we'd been lucky, the flowers hadn't just held C4 as we'd thought, much of the weight had been a big mass of ball bearings packed around the outside of the explosives where the C4 would turn it into lethal shrapnel. According to them if the flowers had gone off on the floor the ball bearings would have quite literally shredded anyone within 30 feet and maimed everyone on the rest of the floor.

I looked round, the few windows looking out over the alley were all gone and there was broken glass fragments being swept up as we waited for the glaziers to turn up and replace the window panes. The ceilings in direct line of sight of the bomb had been peppered with fragments through the now destroyed widows, another not so subtle reminder of what we'd so narrowly missed. They'd need fixing too, as soon as the Department's budgetary pencil pushers got round to finding the money.

I looked up as Liv wandered back from the break room, two cups of coffee in her hands; she passed one to me as she leaned back on the desk and sipped hers. I smiled in thanks and took a sip, enjoying the heat and the taste, Liv made them strong, then looked up at her and spoke.

"Well, now we know what Lysenko meant when he said we'd be dead soon" She nodded.

"Bastard's a man of his word, or so it seems"

I shook my head ruefully; Lysenko had turned out to be more resourceful than we'd expected. Each time we got close he'd slip away again, every time we'd struck a blow he'd struck back. We'd raided his places and got a drive by for our troubles. Now we'd found his house and he'd tried to blow us all to kingdom come, what next? That reminded me…

"What the hell were you thinking Liv, you could have been killed?" She shrugged.

"But I wasn't, and we still have all of our evidence, and so does everyone else on the floor, so it worked out okay" I pressed my lips together as I pushed down my temper, Liv was being way too cavalier about something that could have seen her killed, if that had happened I'd be the one down at 1PP right now breaking the bad news to Alex.

"It was still a damned reckless thing to do" She gave me a sad little smile, half playing it down, half apologetic then changed the subject.

"So he's tried for a drive-by and that didn't work, now a bomb, he's obviously pissed that were making real progress in getting close to him" I nodded as she continued. "He spent a lot of time and money setting this up and we've made some real progress in screwing it all up in a relatively short space of time" She looked at me and shrugged with one shoulder as she continued. "What do you think he'll do next?" I screwed up my face as I thought about it for a while then finally replied.

"Like you said, we're getting closer, bit by bit we're unraveling everything he's built up" Liv nodded as I pushed on, putting my thoughts into words. "We've made life hard for him in less than two weeks, he's obviously worried enough to try for us twice" I pulled a face then looked across at her. "We stay safe and stay careful while we keep tearing down his world" She nodded slowly, eyes on the white boards as she spoke quietly.

"Words to live by" She applied herself to her coffee as we sat there quietly, both going over everything we had on the case; finally she spoke. "It's obvious that he's been operating out of Hudson Heights for the last few years getting everything set up" I nodded; Lysenko had rented the place for over two years in total, as she kept going. "But he's a spook, according to all the books and movies paranoia's supposed to be their stock in trade, so you have to figure he must have some back-up bolt hole just in case"

"Makes sense, if nothing else some place he keeps the poison and the suppressant" I said, we hadn't found any trace of either at the condo. "Plus he's still got at least six kids somewhere on the island"

From talking to the kids we'd got a feel for where they were being kept, a number of places across the island; we'd raided every one Tori had found but turned up not much, it seemed that Lysenko was pulling his operations back to someplace we still didn't know about.

Jordan had sat in some of the kid's sessions and had managed to further refine her profile of Lysenko; unfortunately what we'd learned hadn't been good. During Lanie and Melinda's initial autopsies of Daniil and Ludmilla back when we'd first started on this case, they'd noticed both kids had signs of previous injuries. It turned out they came from harsh beatings that each had received, most often at Lysenko's hand as he'd broken their will and spirit.

More recent arrivals had already started to receive that same treatment before they'd even left Russia, starting a process that'd left the kids broken and docile. Together with some pretty horrible threats to harm whatever family they had back in Russia, most of them had broken under the pressure. All the kids who'd known him said Daniil had been one of the most rebellious so it wasn't surprising that he'd run when he had the first chance.

All taken together with the info that we already had allowed Jordan to warn us that Lysenko was a ruthless bastard who wouldn't take losing well and who was likely to keep lashing out the more pressure we put him under, given what he'd tried so far I had no idea of what he'd do next.

We'd had one small win though; well it was kind of a win, kinda not. This morning's Aeroflot 777 from Moscow had dropped into JFK where a reception party had been waiting; they'd scooped up two men and four kids travelling together, all thanks to Tori's digging on the net into Lysenko's Cayman Island companies.

We now had both thugs in custody and the four kids; Lidiya, Raisa and Emilia and a boy, Gavriil were now in hospital. That counted as a win, unfortunately all six had been dosed with the poison before they left Russia, effectively they'd been served a death sentence and there was nothing we could do, not until we found Lysenko and got the antidote off him.

My musings were interrupted as Tori walked out of the electronics room shaking her head and wiping at her eyes. Seeing her obvious distress I spoke up.

"Hey Tori, you okay?" I saw Liv look up as well as Tori shook her head.

"No, not really" I popped off the desk and made my way towards her as Liv did the same. From the other direction I saw Captain Gates walking our way.

"What's up?" Tori looked a little pale, something that became more apparent as we walked up to her. Liv nodded and backed me up.

"Yeah, you don't look too well" Tori was about to answer when Gates arrived and spoke.

What seems to be the problem Miss Ellis?" Tori looked around the three of us and shook her head.

"I was looking into some of those websites that were being paid for by one of Lysenko's Cayman island companies, Universal Corporate Export International" I nodded, I remembered her mentioning them. At our nods she kept going. "I managed to apply a few common password hacks and got into them. Most are dormant with nothing there, but one's being used to run video content, the other streaming content" I felt a little sick, I had an idea where this was going. Gates however didn't.

"What sort of content" Tori obviously wasn't happy to be asked but reluctantly replied.

"It's video of the kids" She shook her head. "Some of its pretty dreadful" Liv looked grim as she spoke.

"How bad?" Tori shook her head.

"The streaming content has the kids doing…stuff. Some of it solo, sometimes it's two of them together, some of it, the worst, involves adults" I felt my stomach heave as both Gates and Liv paled. Finally Liv spoke.

"I'm sorry Tori, I really am, but I'm going to have to look at some of the video, it'll form the basis of the evidence for a case of child pornography against Lysenko and anyone else we can identify" It was obvious that Tori wasn't happy with her request so I smiled.

"We'll sit in with you Tori, help each other get through it" Gates nodded and spoke, quite kindly for someone who'd earned their nickname 'Iron' Gates.

"I agree, let's get it over with once and then we can leave it to the prosecutors" She patted Tori on the shoulder. "It probably won't be that bad if we watch it together"

Less than ten minutes later I was in the bathroom, my stomach heaving its contents into the sink, Gates was right beside me, doing the same. Finally my stomach calmed enough to stop; I had nothing left to bring up.

Gates wiped her mouth with a wet hand towel and tossed it into the trash, then looked at me as I splashed some water on my face.

"Oh my god Kate…" It was a sign of how badly she was rattled; she never used Christian names with the cops under her command, not on work time. "I had no idea…" I nodded weakly as I stood up from the sink and reached for a paper towel to see Gates holding one out to me.

"Thanks" I patted my face dry. "When we catch Lysenko he is going away forever" Gates was grim.

"Forever's not long enough for what he's done to those kids" I nodded slowly as a thought came to me. Tori had asked to be excused once she'd shown us into the web site then left the room. The shots of children masturbating on camera or having sex with each other had been horrible but the video of grown men having sex with young children had been horrific, driving us out of the room; but Liv had sat there, the grim cast on her face the only sign of her feelings, it made me worry.

How horrible was her job that she could sit through stuff like that and be apparently little moved? How badly had her time in SVU been that seeing stuff like that was simply part of the job?

I was left to mull over that question for the rest of the afternoon.


	33. Chapter 33

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 33**

 **Kate**

It was another day; I'd dragged myself out of the loft's all too comfy big bed, way too big without Castle in it, to find it was just after five. I'd not had a particularly good sleep and I was too wired now to sleep so I got changed into running gear and headed out for a run and a chance to think things through while clearing my head.

Forty minutes later and I was swinging back to the loft, I was feeling a bit better thanks to those endorphins plus I'd really needed to stretch my legs a bit, too much time spent cooped up in the 12th's conference room or in cars travelling from one spot to the other.

I swung around the last corner and headed towards the foyer of our building when I spotted the doorman, Jimmy, standing there at the entrance to the garage level, watching a security systems guy working up a ladder just inside the door, his truck visible next to the door inside the garage. I made my way over and greeted the doorman.

"Morning Jimmy" He turned and smiled.

"Good morning Miss Beckett" He nodded to me politely, untroubled that I was in a decked out in a Lycra top and leggings and runners; Jimmy was old school manners all the way through. "A nice morning for a run" I nodded as I replied.

"That it is" I indicated the security guy up on a ladder. Given what Castle and I did for a living I always took an interest in our security, god knows we'd had more than a few incidents over the years. "Problems?" He shrugged.

"Apparently someone's been messing with the security camera's, the one that covers the door and one inside the garage both had their wires cut" I frowned as I thought it over.

"Did you find any other damage or stuff stolen?" He shook his head.

"None that I've found so far Miss Beckett" He smiled. "If I had I would have called the local station immediately" I nodded, Jimmy was a good guy, after the previous incidents he took our building's security seriously. I walked down and looked up at the guy working on the camera, noticing he was trying to surreptitiously check me out as he worked.

"What damage was done?" He turned and looked at me.

"Hey little lady" I frowned, my voice sharpening.

"That's detective and I'll ask you to answer the question" He was taken a bit aback, flashing a glance at Jimmy who nodded before he replied.

"Uh yeah sorry, looks like the wires were cut with a set of cutters, real sharp" He indicated over his shoulder. "Same with another one, the one in that corner" I turned to look and froze; the camera he was indicating only covered one corner of the garage, the one that contained Rick and my cars. It meant anyone coming in through the door and over to our cars would be unseen on any cameras. I turned and spoke quickly to Jimmy.

"Don't let anyone in here until I get back, you understand?" He nodded once.

"Yes, or course Miss Beckett, but might I ask why?" I gave him a lop-sided smile and spoke over my shoulder as I headed for the lift.

"I've got a really bad feeling about this"

Four minutes later I was back with my cell and the keys to Castle's Ferrari and my Chevy Impala. Standing near the garage door I used the remotes to unlock them both, fortunately nothing happened so I walked over and opened the Impala, seeing nothing untoward so I dropped down and checked underneath; finding nothing suspicious there I popped the hood and looked around, unable to see anything out of place in the dim light so I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight app, flooding the engine bay with harsh bright light, making the wires leading from the starter motor to a mass of grey blocks attached to the firewall in front of the driver's seat easily seen.

I felt a sudden chill as I recognised the grey mass; blocks of C4, identical to the ones in yesterday's flower delivery.

I remembered Lysenko's words over the phone a few days ago. ' _Enjoy your little triumph Detective; you and your fellow police will soon be dead_ ' I grimaced; he was a persistent son of a bitch if nothing else. Turning I backed away and then popped the hood on the Ferrari, not surprised to see the same set up there. Whoever started up either car would be blown to atoms along with anyone else inside with them. I backed away, already calling despatch.

"This is Detective Beckett, badge number 41319; I need units and the bomb squad at 425 Broome Street, we have two unexploded bombs on site, located in the underground parking garage" Despatch was good, in seconds they were repeating the details back and getting units moving as I backed away and spoke to both Jimmy and the security guy.

"Back off, there are bombs in both cars, bomb squads on the way" They both started backing away until I reached out and grabbed Jimmy's arm. "Start calling each resident and tell them to evacuate now, use the fire stairs and gather round the corner in Crosby Street" He nodded and took off at a run as I stood there, grinding my teeth in frustration for a moment, that bastard Lysenko had been a step ahead of us all the way. His words came to me again '… _you and your fellow police will soon be dead_ ', the others…

In second's Liv's phone was ringing but no one was answering. I tried Alex's next but there was no answer there either, it rang till it too went to voice mail. Cursing to myself I left a message and ended the call then rang Jordan. It rang three times then she picked up.

"Morning Kate, what's up?" I didn't waste time on pleasantries.

"Don't go near your car, it may be booby-trapped" There was a silence on the other end of the phone before, finally, she answered.

"I was just walking out to take my daughter to school. What sort of booby-trap?" I grimaced, so fucking close…

"Both my car and Castle's Ferrari have C4 attached to the starter motor, turn the ignition and they'll blow" I heard her voice, distant, she wasn't speaking into the phone.

"Kimmie honey, back inside the house, right now you hear? Get daddy and both of you go out the back and into the back yard, do it right now" Her voice came back to me. "Attached to the starter motor?" I nodded unconsciously.

"Yes, with C4 against the firewall" There was a muted beep; no doubt she'd just remotely unlocked her car. There was silence for maybe 20 seconds then she spoke again.

"Same here, I'll check the other car then call Tarrytown Police, they'll get in the NYPD Bomb Squad" I nodded.

"Get on it, I'll call the others" Seconds later I was listening to first Liv and then Alex's phones go to voicemail again. I grimaced in frustration then called Mac Taylor; his answer was an unknowing echo of Jordan's.

"Morning Kate, what's up?"

"Don't go near your car, both Castle and my cars have bombs attached to the ignition, same with Shaw's" He put it together instantly.

"Oh Christ, what about Benson?" I shook my head as I heard the first sound of sirens approaching.

"Don't know, neither of them are picking up my calls" There was a five second pause then he spoke.

"I can hear sirens at your end, hand over to the first unit on the scene then get over to their place, you're closest right?" I looked up to see the first blue and white a block up Broome Street heading this way.

"Yes, I'm closest" He didn't mince words.

"Get moving then"


	34. Chapter 34

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 34**

 **Olivia**

It was a nice start to the day, Alex and I had broken one of our rules, we normally don't shower together first thing in the morning on work days, it usually ends up with us both being very late for work. I have to say that I couldn't really care all that much if I was late this morning, we'd missed each other as I got lost in this case, this was an opportunity to just spend some time with the woman I loved.

I'd heard our cell phones ring a couple of times but we'd been far too enjoyably busy to bother, the only music I wanted to hear was Alex's moans and screams in my ears, something I'd achieved twice before the water started to go cold and we hurried to get clean and get out before we lost all the hot water.

I wrapped myself in a dressing gown, sneaking a kiss from Alex where she was drying her hair in the bathroom and made my way back out into the bedroom where our cells were charging. I frowned a bit at seeing several missed calls from Kate so rather than listen to voicemails I called her. Before I could say anything she was speaking, relief in her voice.

"Oh thank god, Liv, don't go anywhere near your cars, they're probably wired with explosives" I was stunned.

"What the hell Kate?" I could hear a squad car siren in the background of her call.

"Castle's and my car, Taylors and Shaw's too, all of them rigged with C4 set to go off when the ignition's turned on" I thought about it for a moment. My Mustang was in being serviced and Alex's Audi was up at her family's place in the Hamptons

"We don't have any cars here Kate, both aren't here"

"That's good then" She paused then kept going. "I'm on my way over" I unconsciously nodded.

"I'll call the doorman and let him know to expect you" The relief in her voice came though easily heard.

"Thanks" Unconsciously I nodded.

"See you soon" I rang down to the doorman who picked up after two rings.

"Hello Miss Cabot" I smiled.

"Hi Charles, its Olivia" He was instantly apologetic.

"Sorry Miss Benson, I saw the number…"

"It's okay, I'm expecting another officer to arrive shortly, could you please send them up when they do" I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Oh he's already arrived, he showed me his badge and I sent him up, he should be there by now" He...? Oh shit…Thinking quickly I spoke. "Charles, when Kate Beckett gets here tell her someone else is up here, meanwhile call 911 and tell them we have an armed intruder in the building"

Before he could answer I'd hung up and frantically ran back into the en-suite, grabbing Alex, slamming my hand over her mouth.

"Alex, listen up, you have to hide and stay silent" she went to say try and mumble something when I heard the door lock to the unit being turned. Without hesitation I pulled her into the bedroom, hearing the door hit the chain as it was pushed open. She must have heard it too as she went to speak.

"What…" I shook my head as I opened the closet door open and pushed her in, hissing as I did.

"Lie here and stay silent, I'll be back when I can" I could hear the door crunch against the chain once, then again as he tried to force it. Alex must have realised the extent of the peril we were in as she nodded, the fear she was picking up from me apparent on her face. "Lie flat" I reached out and unhooked a collection of coats and let them fall to the floor of the closet, covering Alex as I moved other clothes around to cover the gap, then slid the door shut and headed for my gun in the safe in the hall closet.

Too late I realised I was never going to get there as I heard a loud coughing sound and the sound of splintering wood, he'd obviously realised the chain wasn't going to give and he'd shot at it through the door. The door slammed back against the wall as I flattened myself against the wall of the hall.

I couldn't hear much of anything but given the wooden floors in that part of the apartment that wasn't a surprise. I at least had one advantage over him in that I was intimately familiar with the layout of our home; I knew that the open plan of much of the place meant there wasn't any way I could get to the gun safe, or even the kitchen for a knife without being seen. On the other hand he'd have to come round this corner to get into this part of the apartment and the decorative wall that separated the open area of the house from this hall meant he had to walk up to the corner and look round. I set myself and held still, ears attuned for the faintest of sounds, eyes fixed on the floor, knowing that the lights behind him would cast a shadow in front of him before he could see me around the corner.

Time seemed to slow down as I heard a couple of faint steps; he was in a hurry and not as quiet as he could have been thank god, they were definitely getting louder. I watched as a shadow appeared on the floor as I crouched down on my haunches, waiting for him to appear. The first thing I saw was a silenced pistol, a FNX45 tactical with a squarish silencer fitted. As he came into view he was looking down the hall, for a split second missing me as I lunged up, my right hand grabbing the pistol and shoving it out of the way as the other came up and struck for his throat.

I latched onto his throat as he struggled to regain control of his gun, his other hand came up and swung hard, hitting me in the face; the pain was sharp and white hot as I shoved my thumb into his trachea, trying to cut off his air supply or even crush it completely. A second punch came at me as I tried to turn my head to ride out the worst of the impact; for a moment I saw stars before he grabbed for my hand and pulled, trying to free his neck. He tore at my fingers and peeled them off as we struggled in silence, mostly just grunts and harsh breathing, we were barely a few inches away from each other; a dark-haired guy in a suit and coat, brown eyes, a mole on his left cheek and a scar on his neck, all visible as we struggled. I went to grab him again and he blocked my hand as we wrestled for the gun, it went off a couple of times, even with the silencer it was still loud in the corridor, it bucked in my hand each time as I felt the heat through the silencer where I was hanging on to it, quite literally, for dear life. Grunting as we struggled I twisted it hard, pulling it out of his grip even as I lost my own hold, the gun dropping and clattering against the wooden floor as we fought on.

The guy lost no time, with the pistol gone he swung his arm up, bent, the elbow collected me on the side of the head, stunning me for a second, it wasn't long but it was enough time for the guy to pull out a knife. He thrust and stabbed at me as I twisted to avoid it; for a split second I gave thanks to Mickey, the former Marine Corps drill instructor who ran the gym I trained at, he'd taught me how to handle someone with a knife, given the risks of being a cop it was only prudent.

I let him slash at me again, pulling back then snatching his wrist, binding it as I used my leverage to fall backwards, twisting as I did so he hit first, I landed partly on top of him trying to get the advantage. He went to hit me as I blocked, then tried to punch him in the face, he grabbed my hand and we wrestled for a moment, he was taller and had more reach but I was stronger and I'd trained with a former Olympic wrestler at Mickey's gym, this wasn't a fight he was going to win.

We rolled across the hall and back again, I was slowly getting the upper hand before he managed to stop the roll, he was on top of me, trying to bring the knife into play as he pushed it towards my chest as I felt the discarded pistol on the floor digging into my back. I strained and started to turn it around as I levered up with my hip and leg and we rolled back again, this time I came out on top as I used my leverage to push the knife at him, turning the tip towards his throat.

I could hear a sudden set of voices from outside, one of them Kate's; he must have heard it too as he suddenly let go of my wrist with one hand and scrabbled around for the pistol, I saw his fingers grab it and knew I only had a second. I lifted my right hand and then slammed it down onto the end of the pommel, hammering it forward against his one handed grip, overpowering his strength the blade lurched forward as I shoved with all my might, the blade shoving straight through his neck as I felt it hit something hard, a spray of blood hitting me in the face. His fingers clenched round the gun as he screamed, giving me no choice, I twisted the blade in my hand and shoved as hard as I could, the blade turning as I pushed it up under the chin and into the skull. He somehow still had the gun in his hand as I shoved out my other hand and blocked it, his strength weakening as he scrabbled at the mess I'd made of his neck.

He spasmed for a few seconds, blood spurting from the wound onto my hand and all over my chest and face as the light faded from his eyes and he slumped back onto the floor, leaving me crouched over his body.

"Liv!" It was Kate's voice, full of terror and alarm.

I rolled to one side, pushing off the body to see her in the hall, a uniformed officer behind her. She shook her head and stepped forward. "Jesus Liv, when I heard there was..." Her eyes widened even more as she took in the blood, turning to the uniform. "We need a bus here stat!"

He nodded and started barking into his radio as I shook my head, suddenly incredibly weary, finally I managed to get some coherent words out.

"It's not mine" The relief on her face was huge as he moved towards me.

"Oh thank God for that" She looked round. "Where's Alex?" I slumped against the wall, suddenly too tired to move as I off-handedly waved down the hall.

"In our bedroom, hidden under clothes in the bottom of the closet" She nodded and took me in.

"You okay for a moment?" I nodded as the uniformed officer approached, still on his radio. Kate moved past me and I heard her calling out as I looked down at me, suddenly realising that the white robe I was wearing had come undone during the fight and my blood-covered tits were on full display. The cop must have noticed them too as he suddenly turned away as I pulled the horribly stained and saturated robe around me.

"Oh my god Liv!" It was Alex, her voice near hysterics as Kate held her back while I waved their way. "Liv, oh god Liv!" I shook my head slowly, feeling the shakes start to hit again as the adrenaline washed out of me.

"I'm okay, it's not my blood, I'm not hurt" As I looked up all I could see were the tears in Alex's eyes and, surprisingly, in Kate's eyes too. I fell back against the wall as a wave of fatigue hit. I looked back at them both and shook my head wearily then spoke, a little light headed.

"Fuck you Lysenko, your assassin failed you bastard, you missed again"


	35. Chapter 35

Thanks to everyone who is following this story. I especially appreciate all those readers who take the time to review my work; Hi Lisa :)

In answer to a question from Akalittlered2, yes, this is at times hard to write, it deals with something very dark and it's dark pretty much all the way through, the things that SVU deals with are by their nature disturbing.

This is a lot darker than my Intersecting Lines 'verse stories, which balance the dark with a lot more happy, sexy and fun times.

However this story does serve a purpose, one which will be explained in Intersecting Lines Book 3, which will start posting as this one is wrapping up. We have another 20 or 25 chapters to go before this one ends though.

Thanks for hanging in there with me; I truly appreciate every one of you and the time you take out of your day to read my stuff.

 **Breaking Barriers Chapter 35**

 **Mac**

New York might be the city that never sleeps but in my personal, and what I'd consider well-informed opinion, the Crime Lab was the place where the paperwork never stopped.

I sighed as I signed off on another report, happy that it was good to go to the detectives and District Attorney's waiting on the evidence inside. So many cases depended on the work the Crime Lab did, forensics were a key part of many cases, the work they did helping send criminals away for their crimes.

The individual cases came and went but the paperwork never stopped. Mind you, some cases were worse than others, some because they were especially horrific, others because you couldn't close them, I had my own collection of unsolved cases, the ones that stayed with me no matter how many other cases came and went, the ones I saw on the bad nights when I couldn't sleep, the ones where I pulled out a bottle of good aged bourbon and sat and drank and brooded.

The North-side Rapist was one of them, the Skyline Strangler; a series of top floor murders across Harlem was another, then there was the Lost Girls case where girls were being kidnapped and shipped all over the US, another bad one, it looked like this one involving Lysenko was bidding to join those cases on my personal roster of failed cases, we had nothing and the case was slowly but surely grinding to a halt as the victims died off and we chased fewer and fewer leads.

The would-be assassin who had gone after Benson and Cabot had proved to be a dead end, quite literally, I'd eventually arrived to see the aftermath of the fight, Benson had done a number on him, obviously it had been a kill or be killed situation and she'd been utterly ruthless in her desire to protect her partner.

Benson had been checked out by the EMTs and proclaimed unhurt apart from some bruising and scrapes, but I'd seen the dressing gown she'd been wearing inside an evidence bag, saturated with blood, fortunately none of it hers.

Benson and Cabot had both taken a few days off the case after the attempt on their lives, not that anyone begrudged them that. in Benson's case that meant a debrief by the Department's investigatory team and mandatory counselling, while Cabot had taken a few days to be there for her partner, together they'd spent time helping each other deal with what had happened.

I smiled a little sadly, from what I'd seen Cabot and Benson were devoted to each other, Kate Beckett had filled me in on a little of their back story and I have to say based on what I'd heard I envied them each other, that sort of relationship doesn't come along all that often, I sure wasn't going to bitch about them taking a few days for each other.

I glanced at the clock on his computer screen and grimaced, it was almost 8 pm and I'd been here for over 12 hours catching up on the overdue paperwork only I could sign off on while Benson, Beckett and Shaw chased the case; I should probably head home, I needed the sleep. In fact I was kinda surprised Jo Danville hadn't been in to chase me out, she worried about me, the thought making me smile; she was a good friend, one I deeply appreciated. I shut down the computer and grabbed my stuff, shrugging into my coat and heading out the office door as my keys, cell, and all the other daily paraphernalia of life got distributed into the various pockets.

I went to turn left towards the way out when I saw a flash of movement to the right, in the lab up the end of the hall, it was Jo, still working away. ' _That explain that then_ ' I thought. Perhaps I should return the favour and chase her out for a change.

I walked up the hall and leaned in the doorway, seeing Jo looking back and forwards between a microscope and a computer screen, obviously she was comparing something. I watched her work for a few more seconds, appreciating her commitment to solving cases once again then broke the silence.

"And here it was I thought I was the workaholic night owl" At my voice Jo's head came up and she turned to smile tiredly at me.

"Normally you are, I suppose I'm picking up your bad habits" I nodded and wandered a few step closer.

"Then maybe we should both call it a day then" Jo frowned, then looked back at the computer screen.

"I'm kinda in the middle of something here…" I nodded as she trailed off and prodded gently.

"Oh, what exactly?' Jo waved at the microscope and shrugged.

"I was going over the report on Lysenko's clothes, in particular his shoes" I nodded, people's shoes could be a treasure trove of information, the soles picked up and retained all sort of stuff.

"And you found something interesting?" Jo waggled her hand as she replied.

"Not sure, one of the techs flagged some abnormal particulate matter that didn't fit. He mentioned that there was some unusual concentrations of asbestos on several pairs of shoes so they tagged it for my attention" We exchanged a look, asbestos was nasty stuff, especially if it was in particulate form, if inhaled in sufficient quality it could lead to Mesothelioma, a particularly unpleasant lung disease that was usually fatal, as far too many miners of the stuff had found out last century.

"So what did you find?" Jo shrugged as she replied.

"There's definitely asbestos particulate there but it was some of the trace elements that were also present that had me intrigued" That caught my attention.

"Oh?" Jo turned back to the screen as I wandered over as she started explaining her reasoning.

"There are small trace elements of carbon, lead, zinc, chromium, pigments, old ones, plus some others that I was trying to identify" I raised my eyebrow, it was an unusual combination…

"What do you think?" Joe made a 'who knows' gesture as she replied.

"I was trying to work that out when you walked in" She slid her chair back and waved at the microscope. "Be my guest" I smiled at her courtesy and walked over, bending to look into the eyepiece, adjusting the focus a bit to sharpen it up for my slightly different eyesight. There sure was a mass of elements there, all mixed in with dried mud, I frowned, all those components suggested something. Standing I looked back over at her.

"There's a lot mixed in with all that mud" Jo nodded as I pressed her. "You said old pigments" At her nod I continued. "How old?" Jo turned to the computer and switched pages.

"Based on the spectrometer analysis and the lead content, we're looking at pre-1940s through to the 1970s" We shared a look at that piece of info, a building of that vintage was bound to contain asbestos, something I clarified.

"None newer than the 1970s though?" Jo shook her head as she replied.

"According to the lead content, no, nothing" I felt my eyes narrow as I thought that through. That also suggested an old building; lead wasn't used in modern paints anymore, health regulations saw to that. Not painted for over 40 years suggested an abandoned or neglected building, mind you there were plenty of those in New York State. I looked up at Jo and spoke.

"You mentioned other trace elements?" She nodded, picking up a folder and started reading them out.

"Carbon, lead, zinc, chromium, perished rubber, the pigments, asbestos, rust particles, looks like rusted steel and iron, a lot of minor trace elements like sulphur and hydrogen and nitrogen" She tossed the file back on the desk. "Something's bothering me" I nodded in sympathy; I knew what she meant; that nagging feeling telling you that you were missing something important.

"So where had you got?" Jo leaned back in her chair and got comfortable as she spoke.

"Old building; has to be for the amount of asbestos…" I nodded agreeably; another substance that was part of a bygone era. "…probably abandoned for a long time, the rusted steel and iron suggests the elements are getting in to accelerate the corrosion" I stared off into the distance as Jo kept going, trying to fit them all together. "The carbon could have been from a fire, but I'm not getting particles that you'd expect from a wood fire, the perished rubbed doesn't show signs of fire, soot or scoring so it wasn't that, though the hydrogen and nitrogen particles are contra-indicated" I looked round and snagged a seat, it was obvious that we weren't going anywhere and might be here for a while.

Three hours later we were still at it, the lab's garbage disposal containing two delivered pizza boxes as we finished off coffees while cross referencing data. Jo looked up from the computer.

"Maybe we've been looking at this all wrong" I tilted my head to look at her and asked the obvious question.

"How so?" Jo pulled a face as she replied.

"I thought that carbon was evidence of some kind of fire, but maybe it wasn't" She waved her hand around. "What else does carbon come from?" I shrugged at the rhetorical question then pushed on to answer it.

"It's everywhere, it's one of the most common elements" Jo nodded.

"Sure, but here in New York in an old building?" I thought that for a moment over then shrugged as I replied.

"What are you getting at?"

"Coal" She smiled. "It was used for heating for decades, every major building used it for the boilers in the basement. "It was phased out given how dirty it was, most boilers now are gas or electrically powered, so we're maybe looking at a place that was shut before coal was phased out" I thought that over for a while then spoke quietly.

"Let's have a look at the spectrometer report again" We checked and rechecked the various analyses before Jo finally looked my way and spoke up.

"It's coal alright but it's lower grade coal, today the preferred coal for power generation is anthracite-style coal, it's got a lot higher thermal efficiency than the stuff we've got here" I nodded as I answered.

"That tallies with the age of the paint, it's an older building that was using older coal" I scratched my jaw, feeling the stubble there under my fingers before continuing. "So we're looking at an older, probably abandoned building that used coal back before the 1980s" I frowned. There were a lot of particles there for some basement building heater, something I pointed out to her. "The high percentage of coal particles suggests more than just a residential building's coal-fired boiler though, I mean it's by far the largest element in the sample" Jo glanced my way and nodded.

"Maybe an industrial building that had its own boiler or power generation equipment, I mean a lot of places back in the early 20th century generated their own power" I suddenly stilled, something she'd said was bugging me…

"Say that again" Jo looked perplexed at my question.

"What?" I made a rewind gesture as I explained.

"What you just said, the last bit" Jo looked a little perplexed as her brow furrowed before she answered.

"I said lots of placed burned coal for power, back when electrification was being rolled out, they burned coal for electricity on site" The light suddenly came on for me, power generation….

"An old building, no longer used and rusting; full of asbestos and coal but rusting to pieces, lots of coal burned there to generate power, what does that sound like to you?" Jo pondered my question for a long moment then looked up.

"I don't know; maybe an old railway yard or power plant?" I nodded then explained what I was thinking.

"What about an old power station, there's a couple on the island and some more throughout the state that fit the bill, abandoned and rusting out" Jo thought that over then nodded.

"It does fit the bill, lots of coal burned there for power, lots of asbestos and the rubber would have been used for insulation throughout the power generation system" Realising we had a real lead here I sat up straight and spoke.

"I should get a canvas going…" I trailed off as I looked up at the digital clock on the wall, grimacing at the time before finishing. "…later today" Jo looked up to see it was just after midnight and smiled tiredly.

"Good idea, now though I think it's past my bedtime" I smiled.

"Good point" I stood and stretched to relieve an aching back, too much time spent hunched over looking into scopes or screens. "Let's regroup around nine and we can get a canvas of potential premises underway" We stood and I waited as Jo collected her things and got packed up. Finally she grabbed her coat and looked at me.

"You think it might mean something?" I shrugged before answering.

"It's more than we had a few hours ago, so I'd call it something" I smiled tiredly; it'd been a very long day. "We'll know later today" I waved us towards the door.

"Let's call it a night and we'll see what we've got once we get back in" Jo nodded and headed for the door, smiling tiredly as she passed me.

"Sounds good to me"


	36. Chapter 36

Breaking Barriers Chapter 36

Kate

We were sitting having the second coffee of the morning, going over the evidence looking for other clues we might have missed, not that we expected to find anything but it's what cops do. The assassin that Liv had killed, who fingerprints identified as a Peter Banks, turned out to be known in the criminal underworld as a killer for hire; he wasn't cheap but was willing to take on the harder jobs, which going after a cop certainly qualified as, if the money was right.

Banks was ex-army, serving in Iraq he'd been infantry and cross-trained in bomb-disposal which explained the C4; his record had described a man with few friends and a 'me first' attitude which saw him shuffled out of the army during a reduction in force, apparently the army wasn't all that sorry to see him go, describing him as a loner who didn't integrate well with the rest of his squad.

We'd spoken to his usual 'associates' here in New York, the sort of people who directed potential clients his way, but they either didn't know anything or were being particularly loyal to a dead man, god knows why. Otherwise Banks was a man who'd kept to himself, if he had friends they sure weren't on our radar, leaving us with damn all to go on.

He did own a small house in North Bergen just over the river in New Jersey which we'd duly searched, by which I meant torn apart. We'd found cash and a cache of pistols in a false bottom draw of a bookcase which forensics had matched to at least three other murders, plus a PC that Tori had combed through. In amongst the porn, viruses and first person shooter games we did find log-in details to several bank accounts, one of which had a fifty thousand dollar deposit two days before the attempts on our lives, the money coming via interbank transfer from the Caymans, traced back to one of Lysenko's companies, naturally.

Unfortunately with Banks decorating one of Melinda Warner's slabs that lead had dried up as well leaving us raking over previous evidence looking for something new without much success, when Mac Taylor breezed in, looking way too chirpy for this hour of the morning.

Within minutes he'd explained his rationale, which also explained his mood; it was a long shot but he was the forensics guy and it was a hell of a lot more than we had before he walked in this morning. We pulled up a map and started cross-referencing power plants. We discounted any that were still operating, as Mac said most had been refurbished and would have had much newer paint and a lot less asbestos besides; as Liv pointed out, hiding Lysenko's operation in a working power plant wasn't going to happen; someone would see something out of place and talk.

Instead we called up the net and a bunch of other sources to make sure we found all the possible sites before contacting the relevant precincts and independent police departments and getting them to conduct a very cautious sweep of each site using unmarked cars, we didn't want to tip our hand if this long shot turned out to be something useful.

The next two hours we sat and theorised as one by one the reports came in negative, I mean it was a bit of a long shot but still…

Two hours after putting the request out though we got a call from the City of Yonkers PD, they'd sent an unmarked by the old NYC power plant in Glenwood, in their 4th district. They'd spotted a number of cars parked there, not surprising as the place was accessible and occasionally used as a film location. The Lieutenant on the other end of the line had confirmed though that nothing was scheduled and while the place had been used off and on by local gangs as an initiation site that was almost invariably at night; the place should have been empty during the day, certainly not having over half a dozen vehicles parked there. He asked if we wanted him to send in a squad but we hastily told him to sit tight, we were on our way.

Ten minutes later, having explained what we were doing to Gates, we were in my Charger and screaming up West Street with sirens blaring as we paced the Hudson, Espo and Ryan right behind us. We hit 11th Avenue and crossed over the Lincoln Tunnel onto 12th as I passed the Intrepid Museum and accelerated as we got lighter mid-morning traffic on the Henry Hudson Parkway, I finally eased off a bit as we hit 90 passing under the George Washington Bridge, the scenery flashing past us, to be honest I don't get to cut loose like this often in the usual Manhattan traffic, it was kinda fun and a bit of a stress relief, none of the others were complaining though, we had a solid lead and wanted to get to it.

We slowed down as we pulled into Yonkers, turning off the Parkway we could see the disused smoke stacks of the power plant on the river's edge. The 4th Precinct House turned out to be only five blocks from the power plant; as you can imagine they were pretty surprised to have a group of NYPD and Bureau people drop on them but once we gave them the bare bones they basically gave us full cooperation. There's nothing like the phrases 'child sex slavery' and 'attempted cop killers' to get a police department's full attention.

An hour later we had confirmation something was up, a couple of the local gangers had been pulled in and basically admitted they'd been run off a few days back by armed guys, told if they came back they were dead. A pair of the gangers, braver than the rest, had tried investigating and had never been seen again, not surprisingly whoever was in there had been left alone since.

A call back to headquarters had arranged for a NYPD surveillance team to arrive and send a drone to scan through the area, they spotted nine vehicles there including a couple of vans; the kicker though was a top-end Mercedes G-Wagon that turned out to registered to the same Cayman Island's company as the rest of Lysenko's vehicles.

We were pretty certain that we'd hit pay dirt so we were standing in the precinct houses briefing room, drinking the local coffee and discussing what might be happening in the power plant when my cell rang; it was Tori with some bad news. The same Cayman Island's company that Lysenko had set up to buy airfares had just booked a single first class ticket to Dubai on Emirates, with a connection on to Moscow, departing tomorrow morning. I thanked her and hung up before turning to the others and sharing the bad news

"Looks like Lysenko's getting ready to bug out, a one way air fare from New York to Dubai and on to Russia's been booked for tomorrow morning" Jordan looked up and scowled at that news, then explained her reaction.

"Obviously we don't have an extradition treaty with Russia, but it might surprise you that we don't have one with the United Arab Emirates either" Liv turned to look at her with a frown.

"Really, I mean I can understand Russia but the Emirate's is kind of an ally aren't they?" At Jordan's head shake her frown deepened to a scowl. "So if he gets on that plane and it lifts off he's in the wind right?" Jordan nodded again before Mac spoke.

"We can pick him up when he shows up at JFK, take him into custody" I shook my head; noting Liv doing the same as I spoke.

"If he turns up, for all we know this is a diversion, he may not show and instead bug out some other way" Liv chimed in on that.

"Yeah, he has to have some idea we're onto him, after all we were waiting on those four kids from Russia, so you have to figure he knows we know about his ticketing company" Jordan nodded as she spoke.

"I agree, for all we know Lysenko could pay cash to fly somewhere else domestic and then take a plane out of the country on a completely unknown passport" She shrugged. "If he doesn't want to fly domestic he could drive to Boston and take a flight out of Logan, or even drive down to Washington and fly out from there"

"If we're going to take him, it's gotta be here, before he can slip away again" Liv shrugged then pressed on. "Besides, we can't risk him bolting, we still have a bunch of missing kids and no antidote" I glanced round the table seeing agreement on everyone's faces. Before I could speak however I was interrupted by a Yonkers PD cop who had stuck his head in.

"Sorry to interrupt but your drone guys have something" We looked at him and he jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "They want to see you ASAP" We followed him out of the back of the building and into the car park where the drone control van had been set up; climbing in the Sergeant in charge looked up and nodded.

"Got a few items" He tapped the screen. "We've got the licence plates of every vehicle there, checking DMV records it turns out with the exception of the G-Wagon they're all rentals" We exchanged glances as he continued. "The kicker though is this" He turned back to the screen and called up another still image, taken from a decent height and distance away, the view showed the plant's southern side, overlooking the Glenwood railway station. I didn't see anything at first, before he zoomed in and pointed at a figure dimly visible in an upper floor window. It started to pixilate before it became clear. "Thought it looked familiar so I tasked a different drone with a much higher resolution telephoto lens to image that spot" I saw Liv and Jordan nod as he called up another image.

"Whoa" It was Mac. The image clearly showed a man in a leather jacket, jeans and boots standing partly in shadow, but the AR-15 assault rifle with a telescopic sight held in his hands was easily recognised as he looked out over the area from his upper floor perch.

"Shit" I didn't realise I'd spoken until I heard my own voice. I looked round and saw a bunch of faces as grim as I was feeling. Before I could speak the Sergeant continued speaking.

"Seeing him there got me wondering" He looked up and round at us. "That guy's got a clear line of fire across the entire south and south-eastern approaches so I got to thinking that maybe there was somebody doing the same thing to the other side" He turned round and started typing. "It's a good thing we're so close, I can get good endurance on the drones" He flipped through some images as he spoke. "Where is it…ah…here we are" Another, similar image appeared, a guy wearing a thick cable-knit jumper, black cargo pants and boots, like the other guy he was carrying a scoped AR-15. I felt my jaw tighten, while this was looking more and more like the right place given the level of security, it was going to be a nightmare to access.

"That's not going to be fun to get in" It was Liv. Before we could reply the Sergeant, Telford, broke in again.

"You don't know the half of it ma'am" He started shuffling images on the screen. "I thought that if the north and south approaches are covered and the west is the river what about the east?" Jordan spoke, resignation in her voice.

"Don't tell me, another one?" The Sergeant looked up, nodding and grinned crookedly as he replied.

"Got it in one Ma'am" He turned back and pulled up another image on the screen, yet another man with an AR-15. Telford looked up at us. "Fortunately he's not high enough for a direct line of sight to this building, but between them they've got good visibility across all three approaches to the power plant". He called up Google Earth on another tab, already queued up; he'd gone 3D view and had zoomed in so it was like he was on the power plan's roof. He moved the camera round, showing the view over the area surrounding the plant; it was mostly open spaces, parks and the like.

"It's a damned killing ground there" It was Mac. Telford nodded.

"It's the tactical guys call Lieutenant, but from what I've seen getting in there is going to be impossible in daylight without being seen" He shrugged. "Given the ambient light from the city, it's not gonna be all that dark at night so you gotta figure they'll spot movement even at night" We exchanged a look around the group; seeing the expressions on Mac, Liv and Jordan's faces I knew they were thinking the same as I was.

' _Well fuck_ '


	37. Chapter 37

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 37**

 **Olivia**

Three hours later and the Yonkers PD's 4th Precinct House was a disturbed ant's nest of activity. The drones had been recalled as the Emergency Services Unit, the NYPD's version of SWAT, was on the ground, they'd taken over an apartment on the upper floor of the closest residential tower overlooking the power plant from the other side of the railway line; from there they were able to keep the place under surveillance without risking being seen.

So when two guys walked out of the building and drove off in a van they'd been spotted and followed as they headed south, trailed by a couple of unmarked cars, it turned out they were on a food run, they'd headed to a local pizza store and collected a pile of pizza's and other food, plus a dozen bottles of water, before heading back. Checking with the pizza place they'd had a phone order for ten large pizzas and assorted other food to be picked up.

Returning they'd carried everything inside but the guys on watch had stayed there for another 15 minutes before vanishing, their places taken by three new guys, indicating there was a decent number of people in there.

"Well armed and disciplined, they're not a street gang" It was Steve Mills, the ESU captain. He looked round the table inside the NYPD mobile command post van and continued. "Why don't we set up a perimeter and wait them out?" Mac handled that.

"Because the primary suspect can't be allowed to escape, he's the only one who has the formula to the antidote, we have to capture him alive" Mills frowned darkly as he looked down at the aerial photo of the site.

"Not going to be easy, they have surveillance coverage of all the approaches" He looked up. "Normally I'd recommend going in there under cover of night but all that open space…" He trailed off then looked up. "Maybe rain might help, what's the forecast?" Kate shook her head.

"I checked, partly cloudy tonight but no rain" Mills looked at the map then backup at us grimly.

"The cloud will reflect the city's ambient light back down, it'll be pretty well lit; we'd be seen if we tried to cross the open ground. I dunno…" We looked down at the large scale photo for a moment before a thought came to me.

"The drone guys, did they look for anyone covering the river side?" Silence greeted my question; two minutes later the drone unit's Telford confirmed that they'd checked but no one had been visible. Mills looked up at me.

"So you're suggesting we hit them from the river side Benson?" I shrugged and tapped the photo on the table with my finger, indicating the river side.

"It's the only side not covered, a boat could approach slowly, maybe drift in with the flow, we could disembark and enter from that side" He looked round and got one of his team to call up Google Earth and put it up on the big screen on one wall, getting him to zoom in to the river side in 3D, as close as possible as we watched and waited, it was his call. Finally he leaned back.

"It's do-able, we'll need scaling ladders to get up from the boat to the top of the river wall" He looked round and tapped the image on the table. "It looks like they're not using this smaller building to the north, so we can move up between that building and the main one and enter through multiple doors, that way we're not all trying to get in through a single choke point" Jordan nodded.

"We can have sniper teams with low light scopes covering each of the three lookouts, if they react the snipers can take them out" Mills looked up at her, one eyebrow rising in unspoken challenge, getting a slight smile from Jordan as she spoke. "It's not my first rodeo" Mills nodded.

"Then I'll need additional sniper teams, I don't have enough to cover all three lookouts plus the entrances" He looked at her. "You're Bureau; can we get some support from your Hostage Rescue Team snipers?" Jordan's smile widened.

"Already spoken to the SAIC of the Bureau's New York office and he's agreed, the HRT are at your disposal, tell them when and where they're needed and they'll be there" Mills nodded once and spoke.

"Good, that'll help" He looked round the room. "We're gonna have to shut down the railway line and get everyone off the station when we go in, plus make sure no one's in the adjacent car park or out in the parklands in the line of fire". Mac looked up and spoke.

"Yonkers PD have offered us full cooperation and all available manpower"

A call to the Yonkers Police Chief by Commissioner Reagan had got the ball rolling, followed by a call from Mayor Weldon to the Mayor of Yonkers, since then the cooperation had been exemplary; it helped we were all on the same side here.

"That's good" Mills looked round the table then down at the image spread out in front of us. "We're gonna need all the help we can get" He frowned down at the image then looked up. "Given the light conditions and everything else involved, we're not going in before 10pm, that way the commuter rush is past and it's easier to hide the fact we've closed the station down" Mac spoke for all of us.

"Understood" Mills took a deep breath then let it out slowly before speaking, his eyes flicking from one to another of us.

"I ain't gonna lie, I'm not looking forward to this, it's gonna be dark in there and they know the lay of the land, we don't" Kate nodded.

"I might have an idea for that too" At his questioning look she smiled. "Why don't we get the air wing helicopters to be in the area as we move in, when we go in the snipers take out some of the windows, the air wing move in and light up the building with their night sun spotlights, that should give us plenty of light" Mills thought that over.

"I like it" He nodded once. "Every little bit helps" He looked down at the photo and then back up. "If there's six people in there doing lookout duty on rotation then you have to expect there's at least another three or four, maybe more, plus this Lysenko guy and any of his people on site" He frowned. "That's a lot of bad guys" Mac smiled a little lopsidedly.

"I suppose then it's a good thing we're coming with you" Mills looked round the table, taking us in, getting nods from all of us before he smiled a little and nodded once.

"Glad to have you along" I was about to say something when he followed up with a piece of gallows humour. "At least it gives them someone else to shoot at"


	38. Chapter 38

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 38**

 **Kate**

The night was what I'd normally call dark, at least for New York. There was plenty of cloud and the quarter moon was mostly hidden but given the circumstances it was way too light for my tastes. I looked around and could make out the faces of the ESU team, backed up by Liv, Mac, Jordan and a small team of her bureau agents.

While I would have liked to have had Esposito and Ryan with me they were busy elsewhere, Ryan was with the teams setting up a perimeter, they'd stop anyone trying to sneak out, while Espo had drawn a snipers rifle and headed for high ground with the other snipers, with his history as a Marine sniper they'd been happy to have him with them.

We were crowded into a large NYPD boat as we made our quiet, slow way up the Hudson towards Yonkers, sticking to the Englewood side of the river as we ran with the incoming tide. The latest surveillance from the guys watching the plant was that no one had come in or gone out since the evening Macdonald's run for dinner.

I sat in the back between Jordan and Liv, looking out over the boat's stern towards the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Finally to break the silence I posed a question.

"I wonder why he holed up all the way up here?" They were silent for a moment before Jordan spoke quietly.

"You have to admit it's not exactly a place we'd look for a suspect with a known penchant for high living, besides he could fit in around here" Liv nodded slowly before answering, her voice quiet too, as if afraid it'd carry more than a mile upriver to our destination.

"Makes sense, there's a decent-sized Slavic community in Yonkers, people with Russian accents don't attract as much attention there as they might elsewhere" She glanced over at both of us. "I wonder who those guys he's got with him are?" Mac's voice came from behind us as he moved down to the back of the launch to join us.

"Could be gangers, more organised crime muscle or his own men, we'll know soon enough"

I couldn't argue with that as we lapsed back into silence, watching as the lights on both sides of the river passed us and dwindled behind and out of view. The speed was slow to keep the noise down and avoid leaving a wake to catch the eye of the lookouts up in the power plant, giving us way too much time to think.

In my case I was thinking of the kids still to be found; the info on the website had been cross referenced with passport details, the names on the passports had been different of course but we'd matched the photos with the website details. Six kids were still unaccounted for; Kiril and Nikolai, Talia and Zhanna and Viktoriya and Svetlana, she was the youngest of the lot, only 13 years old.

For a moment I shut my eyes as her image played behind my eyelids as I tried to fathom the nature of a monster who pimped out a 13 year old girl. I didn't know which repulsed me more, Lysenko for selling a beautiful blonde girl who should have been playing with dolls and dreaming of ponies and parties, or the heartless scum who paid Lysenko to use her in the most nauseating ways possible.

Finally I shook my head sadly, coming to the conclusion I could no more understand their mind set than I could understand Sanskrit. Opening my eyes I looked to my left to see Jordan was leaning back, her eyes closed as she took a moment to rest, Liv on the other hand had her head down, every couple of minutes she'd take her Glock out and check it, then replace it and check all her gear, the vest, radio, torch, and the rest of the stuff she was carrying. Satisfied, she'd sit there, her eyes staring out at the wake behind us, quietly contemplative for a few more minutes before she started the routine over again. The repetitive nature of what she was doing told me how keyed up she was, Liv was usually a picture of calm before an operation; to be this jumpy was a good sign of how this case was getting to her. I sat there for a while, my mind wandering before the dull rumble of the diesels dropping to a quiet purr jerked me back to where I was; I'd partially drifted away dreaming of some place that wasn't New York with all its crime and misery.

"Enjoy your nap?" It was Jordan speaking quietly; I turned to see her watching me with an amused smirk on her face. She tipped her head to regard me. "You weren't snoring so you weren't likely to tip the bad guys off, but I was about to wake you" I was about to dispute that when I noticed we were drifting across the river, looking over my shoulder I could see the power plant looming out of the darkness, we were only a couple of minutes at most away. I looked back at her and forced a smile.

"Well, there was nothing better to do" She nodded and stood.

"Now though there's work to be done" I nodded and stood as well, both of us turning to look at the plant slowly coming closer, she went to have a last word to her agents while I moved up to stand by Liv.

"You good?" I nodded at her question.

"Dreaming of somewhere that isn't here, but good to go" She looked my way and nodded.

"Can't fault that, but here we are" We stood and watched as the coxswain on the wheel expertly brought us alongside the sea wall, the power plant rising above us into the sky, we drifted to a stop less than a foot away from the wall. Several ladders were lifted and the first of the ESU guys were up them in a flash, fanning out as we followed them up the ladders.

Reaching the top I moved out of Liv's way as she came up behind me then crouched down, pistol in my hand as I scanned the area, seeing nothing threatening in the semi-dark.

Captain Mills got quiet reports back from his ESU team before looking round, making sure we were all up. Seeing that the combined team was out of the boat he stood up from his crouch and made a gesture towards the main building. I watched as the ESU guys moved from cover to cover, then got up and moved after them, trying hard to not kick anything on the ground or tread on anything and make noise; the ambient light helped, letting me make my way around the debris and rubbish on the ground.

Finally I found myself backed up against a wall near one of the doors as ESU got ready to breach into the building, Liv backed up by my side with Jordan and Mac further up near another door.

Mills looked around, taking us all in, seeing everyone was ready he raised a fist, held it for a second them pumped it. That was the signal for both doors to be smashed open with battering rams, the old wood and locks no match for the impact, flying back out of the way with a hollow boom as the first of the ESU guys raced in, followed by the rest of us.

We fanned out across the darkened spaces, barely able to see anything, moving by the light of our flashlights, otherwise it was dark as anything in this part of the building, something Mills must have thought as well as he spoke into his radio, I heard his voice in my earpiece.

"Take the windows and move the choppers in"

Seconds later I heard the sounds of shattering glass and the sudden noise of approaching helicopters as alarmed voices rang out from another part of the building ahead of us.

"Light it up" It was Mills; in response within seconds the building was flooded with harsh white light, bathing the place in harsh light and inky shadows, drawing a chorus of shouts from inside the building ahead, I heard at least two voices yelling and the sounds of shots from above us as a calm voice came over the earpiece.

The sentries are shooting at the helicopters" Before Mills could speak the voice continued. "Taking them out now" I didn't hear any shots from outside but the shooting above stopped abruptly. "Sentries are down" I didn't miss the satisfaction in the voice; he must be one of the snipers. I looked around but there was nothing visible so I took off after the ESU team, Liv moving quickly after me.

We came up against a thick interior wall as one of the ESU guys stuck his head through the open doorway and looked around, only to almost fall backwards in his hurry to duck as a fusillade of bullets hit the wall around one side of the door or flew through and passed us into the darkness as I pressed myself back into the brick. The ESU guy frantically back-pedalled and looked up, his voice full of tension and fear.

"At least two shooters, 10 metres up the corridor" Mills nodded and reached down, grabbing a flash-bang stun grenade of his vest, pulling the pin and waiting several seconds before lobbing it round the doorway and down the corridor in an obviously well-practiced move. A couple of seconds later and there was a bright flash and a very loud noise even as the ESU guys charged round the corner. I hefted my Glock and went after them to see them smacking two guys down to the ground, a couple of AR15s lying on the ground nearby. In a few seconds the two guys were cuffed at both hands and feet before they could recover, the AR15s emptied and tossed back up the corridor and we were moving on.

I'd lost track of Mac and Jordan and the others, we'd been separated as we moved through the building; I could hear firing from another part of the building, the rattling echoes making it almost impossible to work out from where or how close.

A few seconds later we moved out of the corridor we were in and into a large open space, the light from the circling helicopters casting a constantly moving kaleidoscope of light and shadow, confusing, dizzying and dazzling all at once.

"I don't like all this open space" It was Liv, her voice worried; I nodded and glanced around, seeing a large mound of machinery, god knows what it was originally used for but for now it was cover. I pointed towards it.

"Over there" We made our way over in a crouching run, getting up against the large lump of whatever it was then peering around one end. I could see light spilling out from the far side of the open room, probably 40 or 50 feet away.

"Looks like we need to go that way" I nodded and went to move forward when Liv grabbed my arm and pointed over towards a small pile of rubble not too far away.

"Over there" I looked that way, sprawled across a small pile of debris I could see two bodies, from the look of how they were dressed they were the missing gangers, the mess the bullets had made to their faces all too evident. I shook my head and glanced at Liv.

"Must be our missing gangers" She nodded once.

"Looks like" Two of the ESU guys swept past us, moving towards cover closer to the lit doorway when a fusillade of shots rang out, one of them hit the ground groaning from a hit to the vest, the other one dropped prone then crawled into some cover, dragging the other guy with him as the rest of us looked round, seeing flashes from a doorway off to one side.

Liv and I both steadied our weapons on the machinery we were sheltering from and fired, our shots joining with the others to drive the guy back out of sight round the corner. I was just about to move forward when a hail of bullets swept over us, several bouncing off the machinery as we both ducked into cover, I could hear the scattered yells and worried calls over the earpiece as everyone ducked for cover, Steve Mills voice coming through, telling everyone to find cover.

"Holy shit!" It was Liv. "That was close" I nodded, noting the bullets barely missing us where we cowered before looking her way and replying.

"Yeah, too close" I went to peer round the life-saving piece of machinery we were hiding behind, only to have another bullet nearly take my head off. I looked back at Liv and pointed upwards. "The shooters up above" She nodded once then rolled to the other side and carefully snuck a look before pulling her head back.

"Saw muzzle flashes from at least two people up on the gantry up there" I nodded then thumbed the radio button.

"This is Assault 11, spotted minimum two shooters up on the catwalk; they've got us pinned down" Mills voice came up.

"Anyone got a LOS on them?" A chorus of 'no's' replied before I heard the calm voice of the sniper lead in our ears.

"Stay down, a chopper's repositioning to light them up" He was followed by Espo's reassuring voice.

"Be cool Beckett, we got this" Liv and I shared a glance as another burst of gunfire broke out, followed by a scream, a report of a Bureau guy being hit in the leg followed. Mills was getting impatient.

"Where's my cover?" The calm voice was unperturbed.

"Wait one, almost there" The light that had been washing across the room suddenly moved up the walls, the helicopter must have dropped down lower, the bright glare sweeping up and lighting up the catwalks and the two shooters up there. Before I could take a shot both of them were blown off the catwalk by several sniper shots, l saw both bodies falling bonelessly to the floor; if they weren't dead from the shots the 40 feet drop onto concrete would do it.

"Targets neutralised" You couldn't miss the slight satisfaction in the sniper bosses voice. With that Liv was up and moving as I levered myself up and went after her.

We got to the wall next to the well-lit doorway, even as another flash-bang grenade was thrown through another doorway further up, the one the first guy had fired through. I chanced a look round the corner and saw a room with tables, a few camp beds and other furniture, all illuminated by a series of what looked like battery lights.

Unfortunately there was at least one guy in there, maybe more, I definitely saw one ducking into cover and he had an assault rifle too as a quick burst of fire flew through the door, making everyone duck back from the entrance. I looked across the doorway at Mills and called out.

"Saw one guy; he had an A-15"

"Where was he?" I waved to his side of the doorway.

"Your side, maybe 15 feet back, in some cover.

He nodded and pulled a flash-bang grenade from his vest, pulled the pin and let the handle go as he counted it out.

"One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand…" I was starting to get a bit worried about his timing when he leant out and whipped it round the corner, seconds later a loud explosion went off, the flare lighting up the entrance. Mills was first round the corner as Liv and I followed with some ESU guys.

The shooter must have been spared the grenade's worst effects by the cover he was behind, he managed to get a burst off but it went high, several of us all fired at once, I thought I hit him but others must have as well, blood flew off his body and head from multiple hits as he was thrown backwards by the impact, tumbling out of sight. I ducked into cover as I scanned for more shooters.

The room was maybe 40 feet a side, it'd obviously been where people had congregated, I could see a pile of pizza boxes and other take-away food packaging scattered everywhere, there was a stairway going up, maybe the shooters had got to the catwalk from there.

Looking round there were several corridors leading off, two of them had lights illuminating them. I was about to move when shots came from one of the darkened corridors to my left, driving everyone into cover. I turned to check on Liv only to see her staring down another corridor, this one to the right. Two men where there, running across the far end, one of them I recognised even at that distance; I wasn't the only one.

"Lysenko!" It was Liv, in a flash she was up and sprinting across the room and into that corridor as shots rang out from the other cops, firing back down the darkened corridor. I bit off a quick curse and shook my head as a dark form sprinted past me and after Liv; it was Mac Taylor, now I really did curse.

"God damn it!" Shaking my head I rolled to my feet and bolted after them, even as a couple of shots flew down the corridor on my left, they weren't quick enough though and I dived into the corridor and kept going, Mac was running round the corner and Liv was nowhere to be seen.

Hefting my pistol I took a shuddering breath and took off after them both.


	39. Chapter 39

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 39**

 **Olivia**

I followed Kate's pointing arm to see our quarry at the far end of the corridor and before I'd realised it I was already moving, shouting out his name.

" **Lysenko!** " I charged across the open area, there may have been shots fired my way but I didn't see them, instead I made it into the relative safety of the corridor and ran to the end, pistol out and crouched over to make a smaller target. I got to the end and peered first the other way, I didn't want a bullet in the back after all, seeing nothing I looked down where Lysenko and the other guy had gone; nothing again. I heard footsteps behind me and glanced back to see Mac and Kate running up the hall; she wasn't happy.

"You crazy bitch, you could have been killed" I shrugged.

"Lysenko can't get away; we need that formula" Mac interrupted us.

"Which way did he go?" I motioned towards the direction and he nodded, taking a quick look and seeing it empty he nodded once more. "Let's do this" I got a sharp glance. "Together, got it?" I nodded and he was up and moving around the corner as we went after him. We moved up the hall, pistols aimed at the far end, spread out along both walls, first Mac, then me on the other side, then Kate further back on Mac's side, we made quick time to the other end of the dimly-lit length even as my tactical experience was telling me this corridor could turn into a nasty shooting gallery. The sound of gunfire was still reverberating through the building, a counterpoint to the sound of the helicopters surrounding the building as Mac made it to the far end.

Both cross corridors were dimly lit, we glanced both ways but couldn't see anything as I spoke.

"Which way?" We exchanged glances before Mac glanced down, using the tactical flashlight attached to his pistol to scan the floor before he looked up.

"Looks like a lot more foot traffic goes left" I nodded and we made our way round the corner, moving forward towards another T intersection. Scanning the dust on the ground with our lights we could see the footsteps in the dirt, moving right at the intersection. Checking out the other way it was a short hall with a couple of doors, all closed. We exchanged glances before Mac indicated we'd go right. We moved round the corner and started down there when a hail of gunfire burst out behind us, shots whining close past me as we all hit the ground, Mac with an agonised cry.

I rolled over and faced back the way we'd come, seeing a guy holding an AR-15 firing our way, fortunately we'd fallen flat and he couldn't get a good view of us in the occasional battery lamp that lit these corridors; unfortunately for him the muzzle flashes from his weapon gave us an aim point. I braced on my elbows and snapped off three shots, Kate doing the same, there was a gurgling scream and a clattering sound as the rifle hit the ground and the shooter dropped, writhing on the ground. In a second I was up and checking Mac, he was gasping in real agony on the floor.

"Hang on Mac, let's see it" I looked him over, checking for blood and seeing none, realising he'd been shot in the back I carefully moved him over and scanned his vest, finding two bullets embedded in the armour plate on the vest's back. Carefully I helped him get the vest off. "Where does it hurt?" He looked up at me through half-closed eyes and spoke through gritted teeth.

"Everywhere" I nodded, the blunt trauma from a rifle bullet was enormous, to be hit twice... Getting the vest off I pulled at his shirt, I couldn't see any blood there but when I got it up his back was already purpling, he'd taken a massive impact trauma and the shockwave had passed into his back and the soft tissues, making me wonder about broken ribs.

"Does it hurt to breathe?" He nodded then looked up at me as I saw how pale he was, even in the poor light.

"It's hurts to do anything right now" I nodded, concerned about rib and spinal damage. Kate had moved up the corridor and checked the shooter; he was writhing on the ground as Kate kicked the AR away and checked the other three rooms.

"No penetration but loads of impact trauma Mac, you need to be seen by a paramedic" He nodded as I grabbed my radio.

"This is Assault 14, we need a bus, Assault 10 and a suspect are down at an internal corridor further inside the plant" I let go the mike and heard Mill's voice in my earpiece after a delay.

"We're kinda busy here Assault 14, can he self-evac?" I looked down and unconsciously shook my head. As I went to speak I heard footsteps from behind us, my pistol coming up to cover the corner we'd come round, seeing Kate do the same thing from the other side of the intersection. A second later I was lowering my pistol as Shaw and two of her agents appeared at the run.

"Thank god" I took a breath. "Shaw, Mac's been hit, he needs to be got out to a doctor" Kate was right behind me.

"I've got a suspect down here too" Jordan sent one of her guys Kate's way as she and the other guy ran our way.

"I heard on the radio, how bad?" I indicated his back as I spoke

"Hit from behind, the vest stopped the shots but it was an assault rifle, massive blunt force trauma through the plate and into his back" She ran her torch over his back and winced, an area the size of a basketball was already turning purple and mottled black. Jordan looked up.

"We need him looked at" I nodded.

"They want him self-evacuated" She grimaced then leaned in and spoke to Mac.

"Mac, it's me, can you walk?" He opened his eyes, looked up and gave her a pained grimace.

"Hell yeah, I'm not staying here" We helped him up but he was unsteady on his feet, Jordan slinging his arm over her shoulders as the other agents grabbed the suspect who'd taken shots though the stomach and leg and started dragging him back the way we'd came, leaving blood drops in the dust behind him as they did. Mac looked at us and spoke, his words coming through the pain.

"Well don't just stand there, we've come this far to have him get away, go get the son of a bitch"

We looked at Jordan and she nodded so we took off down the corridor, into the gloom after Lysenko.


	40. Chapter 40

As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders, and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us.

 **Breaking Barriers Chapter 40**

 **Olivia**

We moved carefully down the corridor, the light here was pretty bad, the occasional battery-powered lamp not really helping much as we came to another intersection, left was where the sound of the fire fight was louder; I guessed it led us back towards the main room where the ESU guys were making progress through the remaining resistance. I could hear them on my earpiece calling back and forward as they cleared the rooms, it seemed a lot of the resistance was fading; the gunmen surrendering or trying to flee rather than fight it out.

I pointed to the right and got an answering nod from Kate as we moved forward, coming up to a door that was partly open; realising we'd be silhouetted with any light behind us we moved out of the line of fire as I carefully pulled the door open, we waited but there were no shots so I nodded at Kate and she held up one hand, pointing to herself, then me, then holding up three fingers. I nodded; this was just like we were back on the beat again.

She counted down and we went through, Kate first then me, she turned right and I turned left only to stop dead at the sight in front of us. The pitch-black room was full of old electrical control gear, the rust visible as we played our torches across the machinery, what stopped us though was the room was full of water, two steps down the ladder and the surface was flooded with inky-black water..

"Well shit" It was Kate. I nodded then held up my hand for silence. From ahead of us we could hear the sounds of splashing, faint and getting fainter. I took a breath and looked down into the water.

"Oh for fuck's sake" Knowing I had no choice I swung round and backed down the ladder, I couldn't help the agonised gasp as the bitterly cold water soaked through my pants instantly. Three more steps and I was on solid footing, turning and making my way through the dark room to the next, open doorway. Kate was right behind, not without protest.

"I liked these boots but I don't think they're gonna be much good after this" I nodded, concentrating on my footing as I answered, scanning ahead with my torch as I replied.

"Tell Castle to buy you a new pair" I heard her making waves as she followed behind me, her voice low to avoid echoing.

"I'll settle for just getting out of this shit-hole"

I nodded, no way I could argue with that. We made it to the next door and I swung my torchlight across the water; you could see the waves rippling back and forward over the water's surface, someone had been through here recently. We exchanged a glance and I moved forward into a larger, equally dark, equally flooded room, filled with what looked like generators or boilers or something incomprehensible; I wasn't an engineer. What did interest me though was the open door on a catwalk up above the water some seventy feet away, I pointed it out to Kate and she waved that way as she spoke.

"Let's move" I nodded.

"Gladly" We made our careful way across the floor, occasionally stumbling on trash under the surface but neither of us fell, though in one case it was only because Kate grabbed me before I toppled. We got to the other side and made out way up another ladder and peered in through the door. The corridor in front of us was dark with dull light emanating from the far end, more importantly though you could see wet footprints in the dust on the floor in the light of our torches; Kate saw it too and with a nod we moved forward, our feet squelching with all the water in them as we made our way towards the light.

Arriving at the end we saw the footprints turn right but checked the other way before we moved on, fortunately it was clear though we could hear the sounds of firing coming from that way, it looked like Lysenko had cut through the flooded parts of the building, taking a short cut to dodge the fighting, ESU and the others were taking the long way round.

We moved round the corner and turned right up the corridor, trying to ignore how sodden and cold we were, about ten feet in we could hear voices up ahead, one voice deeper than the other, they cut off as we paused and listened so we started moving up towards the door we heard them from, just in time for a guy to step through the door and catch sight of us, unfortunately he was carrying an AR-15.

"NYPD! Drop the weapon!" my shout followed Kate's.

"Put the weapon down" For a split second I thought he would, instead he brought it up, Kate and I fired as one, my two shots hitting him in the chest, Kate's shot in the face; dropping him in a messy tumble, partly in, partly out of the door.

We exchanged a glance before I motioned us forward again, Kate paused to check the gunman for a pulse as I covered the doorway, he still had one but you could see he wouldn't for long, he was going to be dead from blood loss in a minute or two at most, one of our shots had obviously hit an artery judging from the huge pool of blood spreading underneath him. She looked up at me, shaking her head as I grimaced; another death you could chalk up to Lysenko.

I carefully pushed the door open and scanned the reasonably well-lit room in front of us. The first thing that hit me was the kids handcuffed to the equipment around the room. There were five of them, all staring at us with terror in their eyes, so much so I tried to reassure them.

"Police, we're here to rescue you" Most of them understood, everyone understood though when Kate said something in Russian which must have been what they wanted to hear, I could see them sag in relief, a couple started crying; one of the girls did not, speaking in strongly accented English.

"He has Talia, he took her" I looked at her and asked the obvious.

"Lysenko?" I got nods from several of the kids and one pointed through another door.

"That way, he took her" Others backed her up.

"You have to save her"

"That way, you must hurry"

"Please, save us" I exchanged a glance with Kate and she called it in.

"This is Assault 11, we've found the kids, five of them on the southern side of the plant, the primary suspect has fled with another child as hostage; we are in pursuit" Mills voice came back though the earpiece.

"Roger that Assault 11, we are heading your way" Kate and I exchanged a glance before she turned and spoke in Russian, several answered and she nodded before asking another question, as one they pointed through the door and she nodded.

"Just Lysenko and Talia, that way, let's go" I nodded and we plunged through the door and into the corridor beyond, it ran for maybe 40 feet and past several doorways, we checked each but they were empty so we made our way to the end, another intersection, suddenly we could hear a girl's cry from the left, without thinking I turned and raced that way, Kate on my heels.

I was trying to keep track of where we were in the power plant, at my best guess we must be close to the south side of the building, I came round the corner just in time to see a bulky figure holding a young girl fling open a door, only to be silhouetted by the harsh light flooding in from outside as I heard shouting, cops yelling 'NYPD' and variations on 'Put the gun down' and 'come out with your hands up'.

With a curse Lysenko; it was him, I could recognise him in the lights from outside, spun back and slammed the door closed, turning to retrace his steps, only to freeze when he spotted us both advancing with our pistols aimed at him. He pulled the little red-haired girl close to him, holding her in front of him like a shield and pulled out a pistol.

"Get away or I will shoot her" I shook my head.

"No you won't, if you shoot her you have nothing to bargain with" His eyes widened as he took us in.

"Detectives Beckett and Benson" Incongruously he smiled. "Perfect, you will arrange for my safe passage out of here, or else" I scowled as Kate spoke.

"Or else what?"

"I will blow this pretty young girl's brains all over that wall"


	41. Chapter 41

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 41**

 **Olivia**

" _I will blow this pretty young girl's brains all over that wall"_

I shook my head; no way was this bastard getting away, something I grimly explained.

"It doesn't work that way Lysenko, you know we can't do that" He looked back and forward between us.

"It works that way because I say it does, you will clear the police away from that doorway and I will walk away from here and no one needs gets hurt" Kate handled that one.

"We can't make that sort of deal"

"You can do it because you have no choice" He snorted once humourlessly. "Given you wish young Talia here to live I am sure you can get what I want" I shook my head and took a careful side step to the left, moving further apart from Kate as I spoke.

"Neither of us can make that sort of deal" Lysenko's scowl deepened.

"Then I should just kill you both, you bitches have caused me untold grief" Kate was unrepentant.

"Happy to be of service" He looked from her to me, anger crackling in his voice.

"The work of years, destroyed by you in weeks" Inordinately happy at his anger I smiled over the sights of my Glock.

"It was a team effort, but I can tell you, it was a pleasure" He took us in with a scowl and pushed the gun into Talia's hair as he spoke, his voice loud and reverberating slightly off the concrete walls.

"You will step aside and let me pass" I shrugged as I answered, my aim not wavering.

"To go where exactly? This place is surrounded, there's cops swarming through the building, your men are surrendering; those still alive and not already in custody, where do you think you're going to go?" He shook his head as he looked from one to the other, slightly twisting to keep Talia between him and us as he spoke.

"I will leave unhindered or I will be forced to kill this pretty young girl" Kate wasn't having a bar of it either.

"Forget it Lysenko, there's no way out of here and there's no way you come out of this a free man" Lysenko shook his head and jerked Talia's body a little closer to him.

"Ah, but I have several bargaining chips do I not?" He indicated Talia's head with his pistol. "The life of this young girl and the other children inside the building, you want the formula to the poison suppressant do you not?" I took in Talia's terrified face; she'd turned her head and was staring at the muzzle of Lysenko's pistol, mesmerised by the death so close.

"If you release Talia and give us the formula to the antidote, I guarantee that I'll talk to the DA about leniency" It was Kate, I was glad it was her, I couldn't bring myself to see Lysenko get anything other than a long and miserable life sentence doing hard time in solitary. Lysenko coughed out a sudden, bitter laugh.

"Antidote ha, there is no antidote, why would the KGB ever need an antidote when the suppressant kept the infected in line?" I frowned in confusion and surprise at his statement, ' _no antidote…_ ' then spoke.

"Fine, we need the suppressant formula then" He stared at me and smiled unpleasantly.

"Then give me what I want, safe passage out of here and onto a plane out of American jurisdiction and I will give it to you" I shook my head as I spoke.

"We both know that there's no way I or anyone else can give you that, there's way too much blood on your hands for anyone to agree to that" I grimaced but before I could say more Kate jumped back in.

"Like I said, we can ask a judge for leniency in return for your cooperation" Lysenko shook his head.

"You offer me a lifetime in a jail cell and call that leniency?" He sneered at her. "That hardly sounds like you're actually trying to convince me detective" Kate took two slow side steps to her right, her pistol unwavering, carefully forcing him to further split his attention.

"Take the offer Lysenko, it's the only one you're gonna get so take it while you can" He shook his head as he replied.

"I think not, you can do better than that I think, you won't risk me shooting Talia here"

The girl in question looked up at her name and then turned her head to look at us, her eyes flicking from Kate to me and back again. I locked eyes with her for a second, seeing the sheer terror there, feeling my guts twist in sympathy before turning my attention back to Lysenko and concentrating on the small part of him visible behind her.

Lysenko was bigger than her, his bulk spilling out from each side of Talia's body, he was kinda hunched down a bit, using her much smaller body as a shield; I had a range of potential target spots but needed to hit him somewhere that would incapacitate him, putting him down and stopping him from shooting Talia or us; that meant the head and torso, neither of which were particularly clear shots; plus I needed him alive so the head was out. In an attempt to give Kate a better shot I sidled to the left a couple more steps, getting his attention.

"Stand still Benson" I could see Kate moving wider while his attention was on me, Kate looking for the shot, Lysenko twisting this way and that, obviously she didn't have a clear one as she grimaced then shook her head and spoke grimly.

"You won't shoot her, without Talia there's nothing to stop me shooting you" Lysenko seemed to consider it then spoke.

"Perhaps you are right, but I doubt you will take the risk to find out if I am bluffing" I shrugged as I replied.

"That cuts both ways Lysenko. Let the girl go and no one gets hurt" Kate backed me up.

"That way no one gets shot, least of all you, we don't want to shoot you" Lysenko stared at her then spoke.

"No you will not detective, I still have a hostage and you will not risk their life, no matter what" Lysenko sneered at her. "You police with your rules are so predictable" I could see his eyes flick between me and Kate. "On the other hand I have no such rules"

At that he swung his pistol out and shot Kate once in the chest, the impact pushing her back as she hit the ground clutching her chest screaming in pain. Before I could react the pistol was back pointed at the girl's head as he continued on calm as anything. "But there is nothing stopping me from shooting you"

I felt white hot anger bubbling through me as Kate's scream subsided to an agonised moan hearing her dragging in painful, harsh breaths, frighteningly loudly in the quiet room as I called out, staring at Lysenko over my Glock's sights as I did.

"Kate…Kate, talk to me!" There was a long, terrifying silence, punctuated by pained gasps as Kate struggled to breathe, even as I gripped my Glock ever tighter as the fear and anger ran through me, looking for the shot before finally Kate spoke, her voice full of pain.

"I'm…alive, Jesus this hurts…" Lysenko was unmoved.

"Still alive Detective, I am impressed; the Vektor is supposed to have superior body armour penetrating power, obviously a claim that is more marketing than truth, I doubt though you would survive a shot to the head" I gripped the Glock even tighter as my other hand came up to settle around my wrist, the grip steadying my aim as I spoke, I'd never meant something so much in my life.

"Don't do this Lysenko, I'm warning you" He smiled at me cruelly, his voice mocking.

"You and your warnings, you are hamstrung by your rules, unlike you I have no such constraints" I narrowed my eyes, my world's focus narrowing down to his right shoulder as I spoke.

"I'm warning you, if you do this I will kill you" The arrogant bastard didn't believe me; he still thought he had the upper hand; his mistake, possibly his last mistake.

"No you will not detective Benson" As I watched and waited for it he started moving his pistol away from Talia's head towards Kate, this time I was expecting his move, giving me a second where he wasn't aimed at either target as I took a breath, firing as he moved to line up on Kate, the pull of the trigger automatic after so many sessions on the range and on the job.

The spray of blood was shockingly large as my shot went slightly high and tore a large chunk out of his neck, his arm jerking back as he fired, the shot flying wide of Kate as he tumbled back, pulling the girl with him. I'd been aiming for the shoulder but my shot had gone a fraction high and wide.

In a kind of slow motion fugue I watched as he tumbled to the ground and fell, the realisation hitting me.

' _Oh my god, what the hell had I done?_ '


	42. Chapter 42

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 42**

 **Olivia**

The next second I'd leapt forward, kicking the pistol away from Lysenko's outflung hand and pulling Talia free as I took in the damage, hearing the rattle of breath in his throat as he bled at a prodigious rate out of the wound in his neck, I wasn't sure if I'd hit an artery or not but the blood was everywhere and the dark pool behind his head was spreading across the filthy concrete.

I'd holstered my gun and was already pulling off my vest then my sweater, in seconds I had it bundled up and pushed into the wound on his neck, batting his weak hands away from the wound; Kate's voice shaky in the background and in my earpiece as she reported in.

"This is Assault 11, officer down, as is the suspect, we need a bus stat" I could hear the pain in her voice but kept my attention on Lysenko as I leaned in and spoke.

"Where is it Lysenko, where's the formula? You have one chance to get this right or so help me I'll let you bleed to death" I was bluffing but he didn't know that as he looked up at me, eyes wide in shock and pain and panic. "C'mon you son of a bitch tell me where it is and you'll live" I saw him focus on me and his eyes narrowed as he spat out a few words, along with droplets of blood.

"Edee nakooy pizda" I didn't know what it meant but I could imagine. I shook my head and leaned in.

"You hear me Lysenko, you're gonna die if you don't tell me" He just shook his head as Kate called out to me.

"Liv, for fucks sake, open the door" I looked round and saw the door to the outside; the one Lysenko had opened before as I suddenly realised that there would be medics out there, they could save Lysenko. I shoved myself to my feet and ran over to the door, grabbing my badge as I heaved up the lever holding the door closed and pulled it open.

There was a barrage of shouts as I held up my badge, the calls dying off as everyone saw it as I started yelling for help.

"We needs paramedics, we have an officer and suspect down, the situation's contained but we need medics" There was an upsurge in shouting and people grabbing radios as a group of officers lunged towards the door, I saw Ryan with them as I stepped back and let them past; Ryan stopped and spoke.

"Where's Beckett?" I pointed back into the room, suddenly so tired.

"Back in there, she got shot in the vest" His face tightened then he dashed past me and inside as I sagged in the doorway, feeling the adrenaline start to wash out of me after all the tension, for a moment I could barely stand before I gathered my wits and my strength and turned to make my way back inside.

There was a cluster of cops around Kate, they'd got the vest off her and Ryan and two female cops were helping get her sweater and blouse off to look for injury. There were too many male cops standing round a bit too obviously watching as I arrived and took them in, drawing a snarl from me.

"For fuck's sake give her a bit of privacy you pricks" Everyone suddenly looked my way, taking me in and seeing how pissed I was before there was a sudden interest in the rest of the room, I looked down to find that they'd got much of Kate's clothes out of the way, showing a massive red blotch across her torso just below her dark blue bra-enclosed breasts, it was already darkening into what I could tell was going to be a massive, ugly bruise. One of the female cops looked up at Kate and spoke.

"You're lucky detective, it's gonna hurt like hell but the vest stopped the slug cold" Ryan nodded and chimed in.

"Yeah Beckett, no penetration"

"Not for want of trying" I looked round at another cop's words to see him holding Kate's vest and with a lot of effort pulling out the ballistic plate, it was massively deformed, bent in towards the centre with the edges splayed outwards, whatever he'd fired had been a monster; there was a lot of 'holy shits' and 'Jesus' from the cops seeing it. I leaned forward and spoke to Kate.

"Rest easy Kate, the medics are on the way" She looked up, her eyes a little glazed from the shock and nodded.

"Hope they've got something for the pain, Christ this hurts" I nodded and patted her on the shoulder and stood up, there was a female sergeant with Talia as I turned to check on Lysenko, seeing a cluster of cops near him. I walked over that way as one of the uniforms looked up and saw me.

"He's not gonna make it Detective, the bleeding's way too bad" I could see my sweater was saturated with blood; my shot had done way too much damage. Seconds later there was a chorus of shout of 'over here' as the first EMT's arrived. One went to Kate, the other came my way.

"Wadda we got?" I frowned as I spoke.

"Gunshot wound to the neck, lots of bleeding" The EMT dropped to his knees next to Lysenko and started unwrapping the sodden sweater, getting his first look at the mess.

"No fucking kidding' he muttered, then pulled open his toolkit, reaching for god knows what. "I need some light here" Lysenko was suddenly bathed in torchlight as four or five officers turned their torches on his neck, letting me get a better look at the wound, even to my inexperienced eyes it was horrible. Without looking up he spoke again, grabbing for the radio mike on his vest.

"This is 27-2, I need a priority medevac bird for a gunshot trauma wound to the neck; victim has severe blood loss and requires priority transport. Location is the Glenwood Power Plant, say again the Glenwood Power Plant in Yonkers, site of a major police operation" The voice on the other end of the radio was calm, almost bored in their professionalism.

"Roger 27-2, routing Two Six Four Six to your location, wait one" There was a few seconds delay as the EMT muttered to himself and pulled out a vial and a hypodermic, filling it as he spoke.

"He's gone into shock" As I watched he injected Lysenko then started working on his neck as the radio started up.

"Medevac Two Six Four Six; you have a priority routing to Glenwood Power Station in Yonkers, contact 27-2 on approach for clearance, state your ETA"

"Medevac Two Six Four Six is four minutes out" Despatch dutifully relayed the info though we'd already heard it, but protocol is protocol.

"27-2, confirm four minutes on Medevac Two Six Four Six" The EMT nodded and spoke into the mike.

"27-2 confirms four minutes" He looked round as the second EMT arrived and spoke.

"The other victim's got significant blunt trauma and needs transport but isn't urgent, she can go in a bus, how bad is it?" The first one shook his head angrily.

"Gunshot wound to the neck with significant blood loss, we need to stabilise for transport; you heard?"

"Yeah, four minutes" the second looked up, and spoke to the group watching. "Can we get an area cleared for the chopper to land, somewhere close?"

"On it, you can go back out the door you came in" It was ESU's Captain Mills; I hadn't even seen him arrive. For the next few minutes I watched in silence as they frantically worked to keep Lysenko alive, even as a radio call and a loud roar outside announced the arrival of the medevac chopper. Not much later two paramedics arrived at the run with a stretcher and loaded Lysenko into it as the EMTs continued working on him while they carried him outside as I followed them out to the helicopter, its blades still turning slowly.

I watched, almost numb as he was loaded on board and the engine span up before it lifted off into the night sky, sending a bitter thought after him.

' _Don't die you bastard, I'm not finished with you yet_ '


	43. Chapter 43

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 43**

 **Olivia**

Two hours later I was in another soulless hospital waiting room; this one was Lawrence Hospital in Yonkers, sitting with Ryan and Esposito as we waited on Kate to finish being scanned for internal damage. We'd been joined not long after arrival by Jordan, they'd brought Mac here for treatment too; given it was the closest A&E centre to the site.

Mac had a lot of soft tissue damage and he'd be on light duties for a couple of weeks but he'd make a full recovery; or at least that was what the docs had told Jordan; I'd gone up to see him but he was face down on the bed out cold thanks to the sedatives they'd given him for the pain, with a nurse watching over him.

Returning to wait with the rest I'd sat for what seemed a small eternity, Gates arrived soon after and we gave her an update before settling in to wait, Alex had arrived not much later in response to my phone call, giving me a hug, filthy clothes be damned, before settling in to wait with me. Finally a doctor walked out and gave us an update.

"I'm looking for the NYPD, patients Beckett and Taylor?" Gates stood and spoke.

"That's us, I'm Captain Gates, what can you tell us?" He nodded and walked over as we gathered around him.

"I'm Doctor Kasdan, I treated both your colleagues" He looked round the group, taking us all in. "Your colleague's were both extremely lucky, there appears to be no major trauma to internal organs and while the scan on Detective Beckett shows that two ribs have hairline fractures, they should heal with rest and time. Detective Taylor took significant shock trauma to his back and will be in significant pain for several days but he too should make a complete recovery" Like all doctors he had an inevitable addendum. "However I must caution you that your colleagues have taken extensive soft tissue damage to their torso's so they will need bed rest for the next 12 to 24 hours under observation" I nodded, I'd expected that; Kasdan wasn't finished, though he smiled.

"I should tell you, as police officers, that both of your colleagues are alive because they were wearing not only their vests, but had the trauma plates fitted" He shook his head. "Without them, well they might not be so lucky" Gates nodded and spoke up.

"Thank you doctor, we appreciate your work. When can we see Detective Beckett?"

"We're just shifting her to the same room as her colleague Detective Taylor, with their similar injuries they'll be receiving similar treatment until they are discharged" I nodded as Ryan spoke.

"Any idea how long till that happens?" Kasdan frowned tiredly.

"They both sustained significant trauma, probably another 12 hours before we can release them into their families care" He looked around with the air of someone who'd just remembered something. "Have their families been notified?" I nodded, recalling that particularly harrowing call.

"Yeah, I spoke to Beckett's partner, he's in Europe and will be back as soon as he can get on a plane, in the meantime I have power of attorney" It was something we'd set up years ago when we were partners and never bothered changing, it turned out for the best though. A thought came to me and I frowned. "I don't know about Taylor's family though" Gates spoke up.

"I've notified his superiors and one of his co-workers, a Miss Danville, is on her way down" Kasdan nodded.

"That's good, they'll need to be under observation when they go home for at least 24 hours" He looked at me. "You said you have power of attorney for Detective Beckett?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I can sign any papers you need" He smiled.

"If you can come with me I'll hand you over to the people with the paperwork" Gates nodded my way.

"Go ahead, I'll send Miss Danville up when she gets here, in the meantime I'll get the wheels in motion"

I nodded, knowing what she meant, there'd be a full investigation into the operation, the shooting team would want a full run through of the power plant operation, though given the size of the night's activities it'd probably be a while before they got to me. Alex accompanied me and we signed all the papers; I noted she signed the ones saying all costs would be covered.

Jo Danville arrived just as we were finishing up, it turned out that Mac didn't have any close family so he'd given power of attorney to her; it spoke volumes about how much he trusted her. After introductions Alex walked Jo through signing the paperwork, I noticed but didn't say anything about how Alex also quietly signed all the papers relating to covering Mac's medical costs.

Half an hour later and we were chatting to Kate who was too sore to sleep and refusing to take any narcotics, I'd always known Kate didn't like drugs so this was just another example of her stubbornness.

"I've had way too many drugs in my life, I don't want any I don't have to have" She paused then continued. "Besides I need to be awake for the shooting team, they'll be all over this" Esposito shrugged.

"Lots of work for them tonight, it might take a while for them to get to us" He shrugged. "I have at least one, you have a couple, same as Benson here, then there's all the ESU shootings" Jordan looked up from her phone and backed him up.

"Then there's the Bureau incident team, they'll be busy debriefing our HRT snipers, it's quite a tangled, cross-jurisdictional mess" Kate nodded tiredly then spoke without opening her eyes.

"Did Lysenko make it?" I frowned.

"He was alive when I last saw him; they flew him to a downtown trauma centre I suppose, one with specialist facilities to deal with gunshot wounds" Kate nodded once, her voice soft.

"Good, no way he was getting away" Ryan spoke softly.

"He didn't" The room was quiet for a while as I noticed on the monitor that Kate's vitals had settled down; she'd fallen asleep. The others noticed as well and one by one they headed out, though both Ryan and Esposito were all for staying until I calmly pointed out I wasn't going anywhere until they were both awake so in the end, after a bit of protest, they headed out, leaving just Alex and I sitting there.

"Was it bad Liv?" I looked down to where she was snuggled against me with my arm around her shoulders and nodded.

"Pretty bad Angel, Lysenko had plenty of guys there, though once the op started it wasn't really in doubt, they weren't going to get away, not with the place surrounded" She shook her head.

"No, I mean him" I knew exactly what she meant.

"He was an arrogant son of a bitch, thought that he was calling the shots and we'd just step back and let him walk out of there free as a bird" She nodded once.

"Idiot" I smiled just a little at her short but accurate summation.

"Yep, Kate and I tried to talk sense into him but he wasn't prepared to listen, in the end he shot Kate then went to shoot her again" I grimaced. "I didn't have a choice" Alex was in total agreement.

"No, not at all, not when he'd already shot her once"

I nodded, though I still wondered if I'd shot straighter maybe Lysenko would be recovering under guard in a room here rather than maybe in some operating theatre downtown.

We chatted quietly for a while, just inconsequential things as I wound down before Alex dropped into a light doze, she'd had a long day in court and by now it was after midnight. I tried to sleep but it didn't really happen, at best I got some fitful dozing in, each time I jerked awake to hear the quiet sounds of the monitors wired up to each of them, the heart monitors and blood pressure and all the others. I looked around, tired but glad to be away from the formless nightmares that kept tormenting me when I saw a figure at the door.

"Sergeant Benson?" The voice matched the female shape silhouetted in the doorway as I responded softly.

"Yeah, that's me, keep it down, we've got people sleeping here" There was a nod and she stepped inside, now they were no longer a dark shape against the light I could see it was Anne Hastings, one of the uni's at the 12th. "Hey Anne" She nodded and looked over to the two beds with their monitors casting a low glow in the dimly lit room.

"Hi Detective, how's Kate?" I smiled.

"Some bed rest and recuperation and she'll be fine" She nodded then spoke quietly.

"I heard Lieutenant Taylor got shot too?" I waved at the other bed.

"Yeah, he'll be okay too, after some rest" She nodded again and spoke up.

"That's cool, anyway Captain Gates asked me to drop by to pass on a message" I felt an icy ball form in my stomach, I just knew it was going to be bad news, you didn't send someone down in the middle of the night otherwise.

"Yeah?"

"That Russian, Lysenko?" I nodded and she pushed on. "I'm afraid he didn't make it, apparently he died on the table" I felt my shoulders slump with despair as I let the knowledge sink in. Finally I spoke.

"Thanks for the info Anne, can you tell the Captain thanks and let her know I'll be in tomorrow morning" I checked my watch then continued. "Later this morning I mean" I could see her nod.

"Will do; can you pass on everyone's best wishes to Kate when she wakes up, Lieutenant Taylor too"

"I will" With a nod and a polite smile Hastings left as I slumped back into the chair, the movement waking Alex who turned, confusion on her face.

"What's up Liv; is everything okay?" I turned to face her as I spoke, keeping my voice down.

"Lysenko didn't make it, he died tonight and everyone he's dosed will die with him soon" I saw the shock on Alex's face before she turned and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me close as she spoke, compassion in her voice.

"That wasn't your fault Liv, it was him or Kate" I shook my head, remembering Talia and Svetlana and all the others who were tonight somewhere they thought was safe, free from Lysenko, only they weren't, he'd drag them to the grave along with him.

"Well him and all those kids too" I felt her arms clench as that comment hit her, she was silent for a few second then spoke quietly.

"That wasn't you Liv; that was all on him" I shook my head.

"I killed him Alex, he's dead cause I missed the shot; because I did those kids and everyone else that bastard dosed is gonna die" Alex was trying to be upbeat.

"Maybe, maybe not, perhaps with him and his effects in custody we might find something that leads us to that suppressant" I felt a big weight settle over me, we'd had no success before, our one big chance had been to take him alive; I'd botched that and it was all on me now, something I explained to Alex.

"If I hadn't botched the shot, he'd be alive and we could sweat the formula out of him, he's dead and maybe everyone else too"

"You don't know that Liv" I smiled at her attempt to be positive.

"He's been damned cagy, I'm not optimistic about finding it with him dead" She nodded slowly then spoke; her voice low and full of emotion.

"No matter what else might happen, Liv, I'm just happy you and Kate are both going to be fine. No matter what else, that's all that matters" I was about to say something when I heard Kate's sleepy voice from the left side of the darkened room.

"Damn straight"


	44. Chapter 44

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 44**

 **Olivia**

The rest of the night was bad, I couldn't really sleep, too many formless terrors haunted my nightmares, every time I closed my eyes and drifted off I soon jerked awake again, seeing blood and death and accusing faces everywhere.

Kate had fallen asleep again not long after she'd spoken, with Alex following not too much later, leaving me there in the silence; the nurses were quiet, slipping in and out as they checked Mac and Kate's vitals as I pretended to rest, watching them through lidded eyes while I sat and brooded, there really wasn't another name for it.

I'd screwed up, taken the shot and instead of wounding Lysenko he'd died from my shot. That meant he'd probably taken the secret of the suppressant to the grave, along with everyone else he'd dosed, god knows how many that had been.

Definitely all the kids, probably all the people in the power plant, god knows how many others as well. And I'd killed the best chance to save their lives.

By the time the morning glow started to light the room I was tired, grumpy, miserable and deep into a self-loathing fit, fortunately Alex was there to help dig me out.

She'd woken up, stretched, seen me there and leaned over to give me a quick kiss. Two short sentences later she'd wandered out, slightly rumpled but still looking gorgeous after a night spent curled up on a collection of uncomfortable hospital chairs, making me wonder once again how she did it.

Ten minutes later she was back with a pair of coffee's in hand, passing one to me; we drank in silence for a bit before she finally spoke, keeping her voice down.

"I know you liv, you're probably blaming yourself for this" Before I could speak she shook her head, sending her blonde hair swishing over her shoulders as she pushed on. "The decision wasn't yours, it was his. He could have surrendered and right now he'd be in custody but alive" She scowled. "Instead he shot Kate, then went to shoot her again, that was his decision, not yours, you acted to save one life right there, the same thing you would have done if it had been any other cop there" I grimaced as I replied..

"But I didn't want to kill him, I missed my target and now he's dead" She shrugged, those clear blue eyes watching me.

"If you hadn't taken the shot Kate would likely be dead and for all we know you might have been next" He expression softened. "I know you; you've probably been beating yourself up about this all night…" I looked away, it was spooky sometimes how well she knew me but Alex wasn't finished. "…but I'd rather be here watching Kate sleep it off rather than having to deal with her being dead, or you for that matter" I looked up, trying to keep the pain out of my voice.

"I didn't want to kill him" Alex nodded as she continued.

"I know you didn't, but he made his decision and forced your hand. You tried to take him alive but you didn't have much choice, take the shot or watch him kill Kate" She frowned. "From what you said you didn't have much to aim for, with that kid in the way, you didn't hit her, instead you put him down before he could hurt anyone else"

"I may have missed her but she's going to die anyway, they all are" Alex was unrelenting; though I could see the compassion in her eyes, hear the softness in her voice.

"Perhaps, perhaps we'll find where he keeps the formula and reverse engineer it in time to save them" She shrugged. "That's out of our hands, all you could do was try to bring him in, unfortunately he thought he was in charge, and paid the penalty for being a sadistic, murderous psychopath"

"He thought he could force us to let him go" At my comment Alex scoffed gently.

"Idiot" We sat quietly for a second sipping our coffees then Alex turned to me. "Liv, why do you think it was your fault?" I frowned; I thought I'd explained this.

"I took the shot, if I'd been more accurate he'd be alive" I shook my head. "If I'd hit my target he'd be in a hospital room here being patched up and we'd be setting up to sweat the info out of him" Alex gave a one shoulder shrug.

"He thought he was going to walk out of this, you said so yourself" She made a gesture with her free hand as she spoke. "Suppose for a moment he hadn't shot Kate and that he'd got outside with that child as his hostage before you caught up with him, what would he have found?" I tipped my head to regard her then replied.

"The place was surrounded, there were cops waiting for him" She nodded and kicked the discussion on a bit.

"So he's outside with a hostage, with cops all round him, in clear view of NYPD and Bureau snipers, would he have got away?" I shook my head; regs were hard and fast about that, something I explained.

"No, the NYPD's rules are iron-clad about that" She nodded, leading me to her conclusion just as she did so well in a courtroom.

"So he's standing there with a gun in his hand and a hostage, surrounded by cops, he's not getting away and threatening the hostage and the cops, someone's going to take the shot aren't they?" I bobbed my head back and forth a bit.

"That's a hypothetical Al, I was the one who took the shot and killed him" She gave me a one shoulder shrug.

"Someone was always going to Liv, better it be you who only hit him, rather than another cop who might have hit the girl too"

"But I was the one who took the shot, now he's dead and probably everyone else too" Alex tipped her head to regard me.

"And I've just explained that any other officer should have taken the shot, hell, it could be Kate standing here with you in that bed because he decided to shoot you not her" She shook her head slowly. "Don't get me wrong, I love Kate, but right now I'm going to be completely selfish and say that I'm glad it's you who took the shot and are here with me now, safe and sound" She looked down at Kate and spoke. "Kate will recover, they both will, and you're unharmed, considering everything that's happened in this case I consider that a major win" I was about to say something when we were interrupted by a surprising source.

"Jesus, are you two always like this or is this unusual?"

At the low voiced growl coming from the other bed I looked round to see Mac lying there face down, his head turned our way but his eyes closed.

"Like what?" I asked, curious. Mac didn't open his eyes as he responded.

"Arguing like you're married" He made a soft snorting noise. "Trust me Liv, don't start fights with the better half, especially ones you can't win" I didn't miss Alex's barely hidden smile at his comment even as I replied.

"Who says I'm wrong?"

"We all do" It was Kate from the other bed, she'd obviously woken up while we were talking, looking at me from tired eyes. I stood and made my way over to between their beds.

"How do you feel?" At my question Mac pulled a face.

"Like I've been kicked in the back by a mule" I nodded sympathetically, he'd taken a really heavy blow to the back so it wasn't surprising. I looked to Kate.

"What about you?" She moved herself up on the bed, a little gingerly as she replied.

"It's not as bad as the last time…" She grimaced as I nodded, the 'last time' she'd been shot by a sniper and had died and been revived twice before the surgeons could get the bullet out and repair the damage to her lungs. "…obviously, but it's not fun" Alex came to stand next to me.

"Can we get you anything?" Both nodded, Kate marginally faster than Mac.

"Yeah, something to eat, I'm starving"

"A nurse, I'm busting to go to the can" I smiled at Mac's request as Alex grinned and wandered out in search of a nurse, something I explained.

"Alex's gone to get a nurse" Kate nodded as Mac opened his eyes and looked up at me.

"I gather that Lysenko got what was coming to him?" I nodded and he kept going. "I also gather that Beckett's in the next bed because he took a shot at her and you shot him?"

"Yeah, he took a shot and was going to take a second so I had to fire" I sighed as I explained. "He didn't make it, he died in surgery" Mac nodded slowly as Kate spoke quietly.

"You saved my live Liv" I tried to play it off.

"Well, I wasn't going to let him take another shot at you" Kate smiled sheepishly at me as Mac spoke up.

"Not surprised really" I turned to look at him, frowning as I tried to work out what he meant.

"What do you mean?" Mac's eyes drifted closed as he spoke.

"I read Shaw's most recent profile of Lysenko, she updated it with everything we'd learnt about him during the case, including the attempts on our lives" He shifted slightly, muffling a groan as he did before continuing. "Her profile said he wasn't psychologically prepared to lose, in his mind it was win or nothing, that he could manipulate every circumstance so that he came out ahead" Kate looked over at him and spoke up.

"Yeah, he thought that a hostage bought him a way out of the country" Mac nodded slowly as I watched him and then continued his explanation.

"In his mind he was the one pulling the strings, he wasn't fleeing the country because he'd lost, he was taking his money and moving on while thumbing his nose at everyone who'd tried to stop him, when you two cornered him and he lost control of the situation, well it was kinda inevitable that wasn't going to end well"

"Yeah well…" I paused then pushed on. "Now he's dead and so is everyone else unless we can find the suppressant" Mac looked up at me and spoke.

"Based on what I read, that was always going to be the most likely result, he was going to vanish into the wind, having killed a couple of dozen people" He frowned his voice reflective. "That's likely to go into the books as one of New York's worst serial killers actually" Kate chimed in from the other bed.

"When you put it like that it's gotta be up there, he's dosed well over twenty people that we know of and god knows how many we don't" Mac nodded then looked back up at me.

"Don't feel too bad Liv, if he'd got away you can bet he'd start all over again in a year or two and the whole cycle would begin again. Shaw's profile stated he was an amoral manipulator and a highly-functional psychopath, someone who got off on having everyone else dancing to his tune, if he'd escaped then he'd do it all over again, somewhere else most likely but the same situation"

"They're right you know" At Alex's quiet voice I turned to see her standing in the doorway; she walked my way, her heels clicking on the floor as she continued. "We know he's killed or will kill so many people, even if the people he's dosed do pass away, your actions ensured he didn't get away to do it all over again in the future"

"You did the right think Liv" It was Kate. "If the situation had been reversed I'd have taken the shot, there was no way he was going to kill you and no way in hell he was going to get away" She smiled at me. "You did exactly the right thing" Before I could speak two nurses walked in followed by a doctor who started fussing round Kate and Mac, preventing me from responding.

They may have been right, but I still felt like I'd killed those kids.


	45. Chapter 45

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 45**

 **Kate**

I was sitting at my desk; I couldn't sit around back at the loft, a long morning lying flat on my back there had been more than enough; it was too big and too empty for just me right now, instead I'd headed in to work on the paperwork, be interviewed by the NYPDs shooting team and start winding up the investigation.

It had been a long day, made longer by the fact I still hadn't been able to contact Castle, he was supposed to be somewhere in Eastern Europe on his publicity tour, I'd tried his cell, WhatsApp and email, all without any luck, to the point a small sliver of worry was starting to worm its way into my head. When I mentioned it to Liv she had shrugged and played it off.

"Probably something silly, maybe he's had his phone stolen, or maybe he's in some place with shitty coverage" She shrugged. "I'm sure he'll turn up soon enough" I still worried.

To keep my mind off that and the dull ache in my chest despite the painkillers, I'd spent the day working through the paperwork that accompanies any investigation, given how big it had gotten there was a big pile of paperwork. I'd gotten to the part where I was cataloguing the photos of the victims, first had come Lysenko and all the other criminals, then I'd come to the images of the kids. I stared at them, those that had died and those who hadn't died yet.

We'd torn apart any place we could tie to Lysenko, searching for anything that looked like it might be something leading to the suppressant, all to no avail. Blood samples from the kids and the surviving mercenaries had been despatched to every lab in the country that might be able to help, but no one had been able to get far, sure as hell nothing that even looked like slowing down the poison.

I shuffled the photos together and laid the images in their evidence box, they'd go off to be held in storage awaiting a trial, though if the labs didn't find the suppressant soon there'd probably be no one left to prosecute.

"That's a long face Kate" At the oh so familiar voice I turned, feeling my jaw drop as my eye's widened, it was Castle, here, standing in front of me instead of Europe where he was supposed to be.

I don't recall much coherent for the first few seconds, I was in his embrace and for a little while all was good with the world, no murderous psychopaths to deal with, though I noticed he was being very cautious about holding me too tight, obviously he knew about my ribs. Finally I pulled back enough to look up at him, I couldn't hold in the huge smile on my face.

"How…when?" He smiled, the cocky bastard.

"A little bird told me you weren't feeling well so I cut the tour short" I smiled up at him, so happy he was here.

"A little bird eh?" I cocked an eyebrow. "Wonder if I know the name of that little bird?" His smile widened.

"Maybe" I snuggled into his embrace for a bit before I had a thought, leaning back to look up at him as I asked the question.

"Won't Black Pawn be mad you bailed on their tour" His face hardened before he replied.

"They work for me, not the other way round, something I'm going to have to remind them of, very soon" I nodded, between Gina, his ex-wife and publisher, and Paula, his pushy publicist, they often seemed to treat Rick like he was their employee, rather than their prolific author and meal ticket. I'd suggested several times he should consider another publisher, something Rick hadn't agreed with, it sounded like that long-overdue discussion was going to happen soon; if so good, it was well overdue.

We wandered into the break room, Castle exchanging greetings with everyone who saw him, he'd become a valued part of the team here at the 12th. We spent some time catching up over a coffee, he'd got the call about my shooting and cut short the tour, grabbing the first flight back to the States, He hadn't called, instead wanting to make it a surprise; I gave him a bit of a hard time about that but in reality I was just so happy to have him back here I didn't really care how it happened, just that it had.

I did see Castle and Liv exchanging a meaningful look back out in the bull pen, one that confirmed exactly who his 'little bird' had been, not that I cared, he was back and I was just happy he was. He chatted for a while with Jordan, naturally he remembered her from our previous case together and I saw him and Mac chatting at one point as I turned back to my paperwork.

I was wrapping everything up when I noticed Castle had pulled the photos out of their box, sorting through the photos he paused at the pictures of the children, slowly he flicked through them from first to last before his eyes closed in pain. I almost said something but held my tongue as he stood there silently for a moment before his eyes opened and he carefully, reverently placed them back in the box, then carefully placed the lid on top.

I stood there, staring at the box as everything that had happened hit me, seeing Castle look my way, whatever he was going to say dying on his lips as he saw me. He held his arms out and I fell into them, unashamedly crying as he held me, carefully because of my ribs, his arms my barrier against the world as I momentarily let go and silently cried. Finally I looked up at him and spoke softly.

"So many dead Castle, fourteen kids here in New York, two more months earlier on the diverted flight, the four children who only recently arrived from Russia, all dead or dying, plus all the people working for Lysenko" He nodded silently as I spoke, knowing I had to get it all out, needed to talk to someone who wasn't part of it but who understood how much it hurt. "The man was the grim reaper, everyone he touched died and there's nothing we can do about it. They're all going to die"

He looked grim and just held me as I burrowed into his embrace and let everything that had happened pour out of me. I don't know how long I was there like that before I finally managed to pull it all together long enough to look up at him.

"God, I needed that" He nodded once, gravely.

"C'mon Kate, let's go home" I made a gesture towards the paperwork.

"I have work here to do" He wasn't having a bar of it.

"I spoke to Captain Gates and she was more than happy for you to take the tomorrow off, something about untaken medical leave?" I grimaced and then smiled; it was good to have friends looking out for you. I stood back a little and wiped at my eyes as Liv's voice came from right beside me.

"Head home Kate, we've got this; we'll see you the day after tomorrow" I looked round to see she had my coat which she handed to Castle, together with a quiet admonishment. "Take care of her Rick" He nodded.

"Always"


	46. Chapter 46

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 46**

 **Kate**

It was getting late and I was sitting in a room in New York Presbyterian, Liv and Mac were there too, Svetlana, one of the kids we'd rescued from the power station was slipping away, she'd been the first to go, talking to her we worked out that it'd been ten days since she'd last been dosed and despite everything we were still no closer to a cure or even the suppressant, we'd torn apart everywhere that we knew Lysenko had been, every car, every building, everywhere all his associates and employees knew about and still came up with nothing.

One guy had said that every week or so Lysenko would vanish for four or five hours, no one knew where, but when he came back he brought a stock of vodka and the kids 'medicine'. The guy had thought Lysenko was slipping it to some mistress on the side, he'd happily shared some vodka when he'd come back so he'd thought Lysenko was happy for getting his rocks off but it all fitted with Lysenko mixing up the suppressant and the poison, the look of sheer terror when he'd learned what Lysenko had done to him and everyone else might have been comical under less horrifying circumstances.

Instead he was now waiting to die, just like everyone else who'd crossed paths with Lysenko. We'd tested all of the surviving mercenaries and Lysenko's associates to discover, not too surprisingly, that all of them had been poisoned too; the ruthless son of a bitch obviously believed that dead men tell no tales. Now though we were here to spend time with some of the youngest and most innocent of Lysenko's victims.

Svetlana was a pretty little thing, dark curly hair and a hint of Romany in her, a little gypsy blood perhaps, her eyes should have been the flashing blue I'd seen when we rescued her from the power station; instead they were now dull and full of pain that the ever increasing doses of morphine were struggling to hold at bay. We'd sat and chatted to her, her English was pretty good for a 15 year old who'd learned it all under the worst of circumstances since arriving, but that had been hours ago.

Now she was lying there semi-conscious as we sat there watching over her last pain-filled hours, a set of mourners for a death not far away, something that none of us, including this hospital full of incredibly skilled, smart and compassionate people, could do anything to stop.

I was deep in a reflective silence, listening to the beep of the monitoring machines and the sound of the respirator helping Svetlana breath when the door opened and I glanced up to see two guys in suits stading there, one carrying a briefcase. The older one glanced round the room and spoke.

"I'm looking for Detective Sergeant Olivia Benson" Liv looked round and frowned at the pair.

"Yeah, that's me, can I help you?" They flashed badges and the older one spoke.

"Special Agent Kelly, State Department, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, you're under arrest for threats made to the safety of Russian Diplomat Stepan Belinsky" I stood abruptly.

"Say what?" Mac was on his feet as well.

"I beg your pardon?" The first one glanced at the two off us and waved us back.

"Stand back, this is Federal business" I glanced at Liv who was standing there, her jaw hanging open as Mac spoke.

"Lieutenant Taylor, NYPD and the ranking officer here" He took a step forward. "What is this about?" Kelly looked at him with that disdain so many Fed's have for cops and replied.

"Benson here cornered a Russian diplomat in a car park this afternoon and threatened his life" The three of us exchanged confused looks, Liv had been with us all day, never out of our sight for more than five minutes since early this morning as we finished up our final debrief by the NYPD's Shooting Team, the people who investigate police shootings. We'd then travelled here by car, no way could she have done any such thing, something Taylor was happy to point out.

"Benson's been with us either at the precinct of here at the hospital all day, surrounded by police, I don't know what you were told but you have the wrong person" Kelly shrugged and replied.

"I have a statement by a diplomat saying he threatened her around six this evening" Six? We'd been here since around five and it was…I checked my watch, now after 9 pm so it couldn't have been Liv.

"What evidence do you have?" At my question Kelly looked at me.

"Who are you?"

"Detective Beckett, NYPD Homicide, I flipped my coat back so he could see the badge. "Like I said, what hard evidence do you have?"

"A statement by a Russian diplomat, stating that Benson here threatened him in a car park near the embassy" I shook my head and went to say something when the crash alarm went off, Svetlana's heart monitor going off as she went into arrest. The two Feds looked lost for a second and the younger one spoke.

"What the hell…" He was interrupted as the cardiac crisis team burst through the door, pushing us out of the way as they converged on Svetlana's convulsing form. We stood there for almost a minute as they tried to get her heart to drop back into rhythm, before the irregular beep was replaced by an ominous long mournful tone as her heart stopped. They tried twice to restart her but it was futile, she was gone. The leader of the team turned away as his team stood there, silent and sad, he looked at us and spoke quietly.

"I'm sorry detectives, she's gone" I stood there, feeling a wave of misery and grief as Lysenko claimed another young life from beyond the grave; unfortunately it didn't get to last long.

"I'm sorry, I'm sure this is a bad moment…" It was Kelly. "…but you're under arrest Benson" He might as well have prodded an enraged tiger with an electric cattle prod, I saw Liv's face contort with raw, naked fury as she spun and her hand came up, grabbing Kelly by the throat and pushing him with all her strength through the open doorway and out into the corridor where she pinned him against the opposite wall as her fingers dug into his windpipe, her other hand clamping Kelly's hand out to one side.

"You're sorry!" Her voice was a low, venomous hiss that carried across the distance to us. "A girl just died, poisoned by a psychopath and you're sorry? Fuck that!" Kelly's partner went to reach for a gun when I grabbed his arm.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" Ignoring the shocked doctors Mac stepped forward and laid a hand on Liv's arm, his voice soothing.

"Stand down Liv, I know you're pissed but killing this idiot won't bring Svetlana back" For a second I watched as Kelly turned an alarming shade of red, his fingers desperately clawing at Liv's grip on his windpipe in a futile gesture before, with a disgusted snort, Liv dropped him like a sack of potatoes; Kelly sliding down the wall to come to rest on the floor, gasping for breath. Kelly's sidekick scowled and spoke.

"Benson, you're under arrest" Taylor just turned his head and sneered.

"You're full of shit if you think I'm going to allow you to arrest a NYPD detective for something she didn't do" He glanced my way and spoke again. "You can take your hand off your pistol Kate" I quickly pulled my hand away from it, I hadn't realised I was gripping it, ready to come to Liv's aid. I took a step back and looked at the sidekick Fed.

"Let's move this out of the room, the least you can do is give Svetlana's memory some respect" Seeing him blush with shame I propelled him through the door and let it close behind me. Kelly by now was levering himself up off the wall and stared daggers at Liv.

"You're gonna pay for that Benson" Liv was monumentally unimpressed.

"Keep reaching for that weapon and you'll be dead before you can draw it, understand?" Mac stepped back in.

"No one's getting shot and no one's getting arrested either" The standoff was drawing plenty of attention when a familiar voice was heard.

"What the hell is going on here?" I turned, never so happy to see Jordan as right now, explaining the situation as I did.

"State Department weenies, they say there here to arrest Liv for threatening that Russian attaché guy in a car park this afternoon" Jordan looked from me to the State guys then back to Liv as she walked closer.

"What the hell?" Liv shrugged.

"Don't know, I've been at the station or here all day, with you or these guys the whole time" Jordan walked up next to Mac and turned a hard look on the two State agents.

"What is your evidence?" Kelly looked at her and spoke.

"Who are you?" Jordan wasn't about to back off as she stared him down.

"Special Agent Jordan Shaw, Deputy Head of the Bureau's New York Special Investigations unit" I saw Kelly flinch a little; Jordan obviously saw it as well. "And you are?" Kelly stood straighter.

"Special Agent Kelly, State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security" Shaw nodded, obviously unimpressed.

"So I'll ask you again, exactly what is your evidence that Detective Sergeant Benson was responsible for threatening Cultural Attaché Belinsky today" Kelly tried for authority.

"A statement from the attaché himself" Shaw nodded.

"A statement, really?" She raised an eyebrow. "Any images, camera surveillance, other witnesses, any corroborating evidence?" Kelly was suddenly squirming.

"Well no, not so far" The ends of Jordan's mouth turned down, making it very clear what she thought of their efforts.

"So you just stormed in here and went to arrest a NYPD detective on an uncorroborated statement?"

"He identified the woman as Benson here and said she threatened him for some formula" Kelly glanced from Jordan to Liv and back again. "He stated that Benson threatened him, if he didn't supply this formula she wanted his life was in danger" Liv shook her head.

"Not a bad idea, wish I'd thought of it" She scowled at Kelly. "Unfortunately for you I was with multiple witnesses all day" I spoke up again into the silence.

"How did he identify her if she was here?' Kelly threw me a glance then spoke to Jordan.

"He said she accosted him in a car park" Jordan wasn't having any of it.

"Did he see her clearly?" Kelly looked a little taken aback.

"He told us it was Benson when he made the complaint" Jordan's sigh was clearly audible.

"So you took his statement, didn't check for corroborating evidence, didn't check with the NYPD, just waltzed in here and tried to arrest Benson here on the basis of an uncorroborated statement" She shook her head once. "Did it actually occur to you to check the site and see if anyone witnessed this supposed altercation?" Kelly's silence was loud, prompting Mac to speak.

"So you just decided to charge down here and arrest a NYPD detective with no evidence to support the claims" He looked at Jordan. "I sure hope this isn't the standard the Federal Government's accepting from agents these days" Jordan shook her head, disgust in her words.

"No, these State Department idiots wouldn't make it through the first week at Quantico with that mindset" Kelly looked affronted but before he could speak Jordan pushed on. "What you should have done was do a canvas, look for witnesses, get some sort of hard evidence, then contact Detective Benson's nominal superior at the 12th Precinct, Captain Gates, and arrange a meeting where you make enquiries, not throw unsubstantiated accusations around and try to arrest a NYPD cop on the basis of an uncorroborated statement" I couldn't stay silent.

"Obviously things like evidence and proof and due process don't apply to special people like them, only plebes like the NYPD and the FBI" Jordan threw me a reproving glance that suggested my contribution wasn't all that helpful, drawing a barely-hidden smile from me and getting an eye roll in return before she turned and fixed Kelly with a contemptuous stare.

"You and your accomplice here will turn around and get the hell out of my sight, I will take this up with the SAIC of the New York office first thing in the morning, I'm sure he'll be interested to hear about this" I jumped back in as well.

"I think the NYPD's professional standards office will be impressed as well" Mac nodded.

"Yeah, I'll be having a talk with them tomorrow as well, I think they'll want to discuss this fiasco with State too" Kelly tried to brush it off.

"I don't care what you try, Benson here was my collar" Liv shook her head.

"You can bet I'll be taking it up with my current superior, Captain Gates, as well as briefing the Police Union, you don't storm into a hospital and try and arrest a NYPD officer without evidence"

"I don't give a fuck about you and your union Benson, you're under arrest for assaulting a Federal officer" Jordan looked at the marks on Kelly's neck and frowned, then looked at Liv.

"Yeah, what happened here Liv?" Liv shook her head and turned to look at Jordan.

"This fool barged into Svetlana's room and tried to arrest me, before he could Svetlana arrested and died despite the doc's best efforts. Dipshit here then told me I was under arrest while I was standing there" She shrugged, completely unrepentant. "It didn't work out so well for him" Jordan's face fell and her voice was full of barely repressed grief.

"Svetlana's dead?" We nodded as she turned towards Kelly, anger suffusing her face and voice. "It appears that not only are you an incompetent idiot with no concept of the rules of evidence and innocence until proven guilty, but you're an insensitive fool as well" She speared Kelly's sidekick who'd carefully remained silent with a vicious look then turned her attention back on Kelly. "Get out of my sight" Kelly looked around at us.

"Benson's under arrest" Jordan shook her head as she spoke, her suddenly sharp tone showing exactly what she thought.

"No she's not. You're the one who should be for recklessly threatening a NYPD officer, given who was here with her and the damage Benson obviously did without really trying, it's lucky you and your offsider here are still in one piece" She waved her hand down the corridor. "Leave while you still can"

"Benson's coming with us, she assaulted a Federal agent" Liv just smiled, the look on her face was wolfish with anticipation as she beckoned him towards her.

"Go right ahead and try, I won't take it easy on you this time' Before Kelly could reply Jordan interjected.

"As amusing to watch as that would be, you are leaving right now Agent Kelly" She shook her head once. "You walked in a special agent, by this time tomorrow I doubt that will be the case" She pointed down the hospital corridor, the steel in her voice clearly heard. "Now get out of my sight"

They went.


	47. Chapter 47

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 47**

 **Olivia**

I was finishing up some paperwork on the power plant operation, the shooting team wanted some additional info on the operation's background to finalise their investigation, though the Captain in charge had made it clear that I was in the clear, as he'd put it exhibit one and two were Kate and Mac's vests, no one who'd seen the ballistic plate from Kate's vest was in the slightest doubt it had been a righteous shoot.

I'd been stunned when I'd first seen it and even more so later when it'd been brought out by the head of the shooting team.

We'd passed it round the table in its evidence bag; you could see the bullet embedded in the centre of the deformation. Lysenko had been carrying a SR-1 Vektor, a Russian pistol that fired a weird 9 x 21mm bullet, something specially designed to defeat body armor; apparently it was a KGB weapon which explained why Lysenko was carrying it.

Kate had been very, very lucky; Lysenko had hit her with a standard SP-11 round, rather than the specialist (and way more expensive) SP-10 armour piercing round; according to the armourer's report if he'd hit her with that bullet it would have gone right through the vest, through Kate and then out the back of the vest, ballistic plates and all.

I sighed, looking down at the paper, what had happened was only a couple of days old but it felt like a lifetime ago, what we'd done required a hell of a lot of writing to explain, decisions and actions that had been instinct and fear and training took pages to describe, rather than the split seconds that had been all we'd had.

"Sergeant Benson?" I looked up at the unfamiliar voice and saw a young guy in a suit standing there.

"That's me, how can I help you?" He nodded and pulled back his jacket to show his badge.

"Davis, Internal Affairs, please come with me" I frowned; IA, we'd all done the rounds with their investigators after the shooting and they'd seemed happy with the results, now what?

"Why, and where?" He indicated towards the 12th Precinct's interrogation rooms.

"We have a few questions for you" He smiled thinly. "Please" I nodded and stood, following him as he led me across the floor; I saw Kate emerge from the ladies and look my way with a querying look, asking the question. I shrugged and gave her the sign language gestures for the letters I and A, seeing her frown appear. Davis held the door open for me and I walked in, only to stop dead when I saw who was waiting for me.

"Have a seat Benson, I've got a lot of questions for you" It was that bastard Tucker from Internal Affairs, I'd been spared his 'attentions' for over a year, looks like my good fortune just ran out. Davis pushed me forward far enough that he could close the door behind us, shutting out the noise from the floor outside, then took up position standing in front of it as if he was trying to stop me bolting out of there. I eyed him off and shook my head once in amusement; as if a young punk like him could stop me. Turning I looked Tucker's way and spoke, not bothering to hide the disdain in my voice.

"What the hell do you want Tucker?" He smiled humorlessly then pointed to the seat in front of me.

"Sit down Benson, you've got a lot of explaining to do" I looked at Davis who stared back at me impassively then glanced at Tucker and shook my head, walking over and taking the seat indicated as Tucker walked my way, speaking as he did.

"You've been avoiding me Benson, hiding over here at the 12th instead of your usual haunt in that grungy pit back at the 16th" He came to a halt standing over me. "Took me a couple of days to track you down" I looked up at him and shrugged.

"If you did the right thing and asked my boss rather than skulking around in the shadows manufacturing corruption and conspiracy when none existed, you could have found me here anytime" Tucker shrugged.

"Cragen and the rest of your SVU cronies were uncooperative" I looked up at him and kept my voice level.

"Maybe they aren't impressed by your legendary…charm" Tucker was unmoved.

"I've been looking into your little side project here Benson and I have to say I'm impressed, you've upped your already-impressive kill rate significantly while you've been holidaying here" He shook his head. "It's up to what, four now?" Davis jumped in.

"Five if you count that Russian" Tucker nodded knowingly and stared down at me.

"Then there's all those kids who died because of you Benson, or were they just collateral damage?" I felt my temper starting to fray, what the fuck was Tucker suggesting?

"I don't know what the hell you're on about Tucker; we were trying to obtain the formula for the suppressant"

"And didn't you do a bang up job of that?" He shook his head and walked round the table. "When you add in all the people killed by the poison then you're looking at quite the body count, the kids, the guys working for Lysenko, the mercenaries, over 40 dead and you killed the only person who could have saved them" I shook my head, wondering just where the fuck he was going with this.

"Why don't you just come out and tell me what you're after Tucker" He took the seat opposite and leaned forward as he spoke.

"It's simple, people die when you're around Benson and I don't think that's an accident"

"What the hell are you accusing me of Tucker? Deliberately killing Lysenko? If so you're nuts" Tucker wasn't fazed by my outburst.

"But here we are, he's dead and so are so many others, all because you're a trigger happy psycho" He smiled. "I know you're dirty too, I just haven't been able to find where the dirt's hidden, but I will and I'll enjoy shoving your corrupt ass deep inside Ryker's where the female inmate's will make a nice example of you, they don't like bent cops any more than I do"

"I don't know what the hell you've been smoking Tucker but you're crazy, you've been harassing me for years and still have nothing to show for it" I shook my head. "Years of allegations, nothing to show for it, years of accusations, nothing to show for it, now you're here again accusing me of something, fuck knows what, and you'll still end up with nothing to show for it" Tucker frowned as he spoke, derision in his voice.

"You're a loose cannon Benson, a liability to the force, now that Stabler's gone it's just you, with no one to protect you, no one to lie to cover your back, I'm gonna break you, and you know what, I'm gonna enjoy it" I stamped down on my anger, knowing it was what Tucker wanted.

"This is harassment Tucker, harassment plain and simple" I felt like spitting on him, this was my honour, my integrity he was attacking. "You've forgotten what it's like to be a real cop; instead you skulk around like some second-rate PI in a bad movie, hiding in the shadows manufacturing conspiracy where none exists" He sneered at me from across the table.

"Oh it exists all right, and I'm gonna keep digging up this case till I have enough dirt to bury you, oh yeah you and that stuck up bitch lawyer you're fucking are both gonna go down" I jerked to my feet, the chair falling behind me with a clatter.

"You prick, you leave her out of this" Tucker smiled at me, obviously happy to have got a reaction from me.

"Her money might have covered your ass, but I'm betting she's as dirty as you are, I'll enjoy taking her down too, she can have the cell next to yours in Ryker's; you can spend the nights listening to her screaming as the inmates fuck her over and over" I took three steps round the table towards him as I ground the words out.

"You threaten her one more time and I'll…" He sat back, smiling as he taunted me.

"You'll what Benson? Add me to the long list of people you've killed, god knows that list's long enough already without you adding any more to it"

The door slammed back against the wall, the sudden noise startling everyone, I spun to see a truly-pissed Captain Gates storming into the room with Kate and Mac right behind her. Gates didn't mince words.

"Just what the hell is going on in here?" Tucker turned and looked at her as he went into his usual IA spiel.

"Internal Affairs investigation into Benson here Captain, it's nothing involving the 12th Precinct so it's nothing to be concerned about" Gates wasn't having a bar of it.

"Bull shit, Detective Sergeant Benson is part of an inter-agency task force based out of my precinct; you come to me before you talk to anyone in my building. Do I make myself clear?"

"Okay" Tucker casually waved my way. "Benson here is under investigation for the death of the suspect Lysenko" Gates' eyes narrowed as she spoke.

"Investigated for what exactly?"

"There are...questions regarding his death that need to be answered" Kate stepped in, her voice angry.

"What the hell are you talking about? I was right there, I saw everything; there was nothing suspect about that shoot. Hell I'm still alive because of her actions, otherwise I'd be dead right now" Tucker wasn't interested, shaking his head dismissively as he spoke.

"Your prior involvement with Benson here calls your credibility into question, as does the fact that you were responsible for multiple deaths while working with her." Kate took that about as well as you'd expect.

"What the hell?" She was cut off as Mac stepped in.

"Those incidents were all cleared by the shooting team" Tucker ignored him as he looked between Kate and I then spoke to Kate.

"It looks like you're almost as trigger happy as Benson here" Kate's response was immediate.

"Why you shitty little…"

"Stand down Beckett, you too Benson" It was Gates, exerting a shit ton of 'command presence'; we both shut up as she nodded and turned on Tucker.

"I have real issues with what I witnessed here, that is not how we undertake investigations here Lieutenant Tucker" Tucker shrugged.

"Don't know what you saw, I was just questioning Benson here" Kate scowled as I jumped back in.

"By threatening my partner you cock-sucker" Kate wasn't happy either, her retort making that clear.

"And my honesty you little prick" Tucker sneered at her, his voice taunting.

"Careful detective or I might have to look into your role as an accomplice to Benson's activities" The snarl on Kate's face was feral, as was her tone.

"Say what?" It looked like Kate was about to jump down Tucker's throat but a single gesture from Gates stopped her.

"Stand down all of you" She turned to stare at Tucker. "I heard your so-called interrogation..." She gestured to the one-way mirror on one wall. "And I didn't see an investigation, I saw a witch hunt" Tucker was dismissive.

"My sole concern is Benson and getting to the bottom of the dirt she's involved with" Gates shook her head once, decisively.

"No, your sole concern is getting the hell out of my precinct" Tucker must have taken his suicidal pills today as he tried to snarl back at 'Iron' Gates.

"I don't know what you think you're doing but you have no jurisdiction over an IA investigation"

' _Dumb fucker_ ' I thought; Gates took it about as well as you'd expect.

"No, but I've spent most of my career in Internal Affairs and Force Investigation up at 1PP and I know a witch hunt when I damn well see one and you know what Tucker, I'm seeing one right here" She shook her head slowly as her scowl deepened. "I think Commissioner Reagan and I need to have an urgent discussion about your abuse of Internal Affairs powers to follow up a personal vendetta" She glared from him to Tucker's partner who had wisely said nothing, then back at Tucker.

"People like you give IA the reputation it has, now get the hell out of my precinct before I have you thrown out" She smiled, not at all pleasantly. "Lieutenant Taylor, could you please have half a dozen uniforms escort Lieutenant Tucker out, by force if necessary" Mac's reply was immediate, as was his grin.

"With pleasure" The look of fury mixed with incredulity on Tucker's face was priceless.

"You wouldn't dare!" Gates smiled though there was no humour in it.

"Benson here ran back into this precinct to carry a bomb out, protecting not only the building and all the evidence in it, but everyone who worked here. If I tell them why you need to be escorted out, I doubt I'll lack for volunteers" I smiled happily, pleased beyond measure to finally see Tucker get called out on his actions. He must have seen it as he rounded on me, his voice a snarl.

"Don't fucking go anywhere Benson, I'll be back and I'm going to nail your ass to the wall, you and that rug-munching blonde slut of yours" I saw pure red and took a step forward, my hands coming up.

"That does it, you bastard…" Tuckers voice was pure gloat, he wanted this.

"Go on Benson hit me, striking a superior officer; that ought to be good for suspension while I ruin what's left of your career" Kate grabbed my arm, stopping me and spoke urgently.

"Don't do it Liv, It's what he want's Liv, the useless pricks not worth it, he wants to ruin you, well you and Alex if he can" He sneered at me then turned to Kate, taunting her.

"You too if you're not fucking careful, you a rug-muncher too, is that it? Benson likes the skinny blondes and you're one of her sluts too?" He brayed out a laugh. "First Cabot, now you, I'd almost admire Benson for the top quality tail she gets if she wasn't such a crooked dyke…"

" **ENOUGH!** "

It was an epically pissed Gates, I'd never seen her as angry as this; sure she'd given me a piece of her mind after the bomb incident but this; you could practically see the steam coming off her head. "You have crossed a line Tucker, Lieutenant Taylor, place Lieutenant Tucker here under arrest, the initial charge is threatening NYPD officers though I'll be adding a few more to this before we're done" Tucker stared at her aghast, finally managing to force some words out.

"You have no right…" Gates wasn't having a bar of it.

"No right? Let me tell you about no rights Tucker. You have no right to come into my Precinct and carry out a personal vendetta; you have no right to threaten the career of a decorated officer, several of them in fact. You have no right to threaten one of our District Attorney's and you sure as hell have no right to behave the way I've seen you do so here" She stuck her hands out towards Mac. "Cuffs!"

He quickly handed them over and Gates snarled at Tucker.

"Now get your hands behind your back or do I get to add resisting arrest to the docket as well, trust me right now I'd love to"

Tucker scowled around the room before turning to Gates.

"This won't stick, it never sticks" Gates shook her head as she gestured for him to turn around.

"We'll see"


	48. Chapter 48

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 50**

 **Tori**

They were sitting in the break room, sipping coffee; I'd wandered in to find Beckett, Benson, Lieutenant Taylor and the Bureau's Jordan Shaw sitting around the table.

"Hi guys, what's up?" Kate waved me to a seat.

"Hi Tori, we're just chewing over the case, pull up a chair if you'd like"

I'd always liked Beckett, she respected me for the job I did and had always treated me well, plus ever since I'd proved what I could dig out of the online world she'd been even more welcoming, almost treating me as part of her team which was really nice, there's nothing like an occasional demonstration of capability to reinforce your credentials, especially to people as capable as these four. As they continued to talk I made a Chamomile Tea and sat down; Lieutenant Taylor was speaking.

"We've gone through every location even peripherally tied to Lysenko" He nodded my way. "Every place mentioned in any way in any of the files Tori's turned up, nothing at any of them" Olivia nodded.

"Yeah, Alex has practically worn a path from her office to the Judge's chambers getting search warrants signed" She shrugged. "Once she explains the background to the case, not one Judge has said no" I nodded at that, this case had been horrific, I'd been sickened by what I'd discovered, the images and video still made me feel ill, it had been the stuff of more than a few sleepless nights, honestly I don't know how Olivia had held it together.

We talked over what we had and what we didn't, avenues that should be looked into, well they did, I mostly sat back and watched, seeing how tired everyone was. It was hardly surprising, the last few days had been brutal, Kate and Lieutenant Taylor were still getting over being hurt, the investigations into the shootings by the Department's shooting team, the case reviews, which Kate and the others had done a nice job of playing down my involvement in, for which I was grateful.

I was happy I'd been able to help, but really didn't want to explain to the powers that be exactly how I'd got some of that information, most of that particular skill set was from a past I'd long ago mostly left behind and some things are better left there, unnoticed and unrecognised. The fact there was likely to be no one to prosecute helped, thanks to that soulless monster Lysenko.

Another of the kids had passed away last night, Olivia and Jordan had been there when she did apparently, I couldn't have done it, to sit there and watch a young child die was something I just couldn't do, to sit there and try and comfort him; that must have been harrowing. My admiration for the others grew just that little bit more, together with my concern about their wellbeing; it was taking an obviously heavy toll on them all.

Honestly when I'd first heard that each one of those kids rescued was going to die, I'd headed home where I'd grabbed my cat Schrodinger and cuddled him while I had a good cry, based on how many kids were in hospital I had a feeling he was going to get very used to that treatment over the next week or so.

While I'd been sitting there thinking the conversation had stalled a bit so I tossed a question in to keep it going.

"Are we sure that Lysenko didn't have any other accomplices here in New York?" At my question there were looks my way as Lieutenant Taylor shook his head and spoke.

"Not that we've been able to find" I frowned as Olivia spoke.

"Obviously he had at least one back in Russia, someone procuring the children for his operation here in the States but no one here that we found"

"Well, no one that hasn't got the poison in them, so they're likely employees, not partners" There were slow nods around the table at Jordan's comment and at the point about Russia; we'd intercepted kids being shipped into the country already dosed with the poison and the suppressant.

"Someone back there was acquiring the kids, dosing them up and putting them on the plane, same as the extra muscle brought in with the kids" I nodded at Kate's summation then spoke up, seeing them look my way.

"I wonder if this is something for Jordan" She raised an eyebrow questioningly as I continued. "Maybe you can get the Russian police to look into the passports issued to the kids" I pulled a face. "They were all issued passports in fake names, so either someone was making really good forgeries or there was someone inside the system there procuring passports for everyone on demand" Jordan held her hand out horizontally in front of her and rocked it back and forward.

"They're definitely not forgeries, our lab went over them and they're definitely official" Olivia nodded and chipped in.

"So there's got to be someone in Russia, inside the system approving these passports, maybe the Russian cops can look into that" Jordan nodded as she replied.

"I've asked our liaison officer in Moscow to talk to the Militia, the local cops there, about potential accomplices, I'll make a note to ask about passports too" Kate jumped in on that.

"Yeah, wouldn't someone official over there have had to have approved it?" That triggered a memory, one I shared.

"Maybe, maybe not" They looked at me as I explained. "When I was on holiday in Rome a couple of year's back I had my passport stolen" I shrugged, a little sheepishly. "A pickpocket, they're really bad over there. Anyway, I went to the US Embassy in Rome and they issued me with a new one on the spot" There were sudden blank looks as everyone's attention was focussed elsewhere, thinking it through. Olivia was the first one to speak.

"Who in an embassy can issue a passport?" Mac shrugged and kicked the discussion on.

"Well we know Lysenko was ex-KGB, whatever they're calling it now, he must have had contacts there who are still in the system. One of them must be in a position to issue passports"

I happened to be looking directly at Jordan as her eyes flew wide, then narrowed suddenly; something had just occurred to her. I watched as she unconsciously rubbed her chin in thought. Kate had taken up the thread though I continued watching Jordan, wondering what had just occurred.

"That's something we can look into, we've found a number of passports, there must be some way to find out where they were issued" Kate paused for a moment then spoke to Jordan. "Can you check into that Jordan?" Startled she looked round then replied to Kate's question.

"Oh yeah, there's a passport section in each Embassy, I'll see if they were issued by the Embassy here" I tipped my head to watch her; unsure of what she was thinking. Her eyes caught mine and widened a little as she realised I'd spotted her reaction; she then shook her head and looked away as I internally frowned. Jordan had just put something together but wasn't sharing.

"Is that something State does or can the Bureau do it?" Mac shrugged then continued. "No offence but after seeing State in action I kinda hope you can get the Bureau to do it, at least that way it'll be done right"

There were derisive snorts around the table at that brutally accurate comment; every woman even peripherally involved in the case had been called in to account for their whereabouts during the time window that that Russian diplomat claimed he'd been threatened.

All they'd had to go on was a woman had stepped out in the car park as he'd been leaving, confronting the attaché she'd spoken to him, telling him that if he had any way to find the suppressant that he should hand it over before it was too late, for the children and for him.

The attaché had said the woman had stood hidden in deep shadow, speaking clear English without any particularly discernible accent, calling him by name and wearing what looked like an overcoat and heels. He'd tried to get a clear view of her but she'd been nothing but a dark shape in shadow. She'd told him time was running out and that he had no time to waste then stepped behind a pillar and vanished, the attaché had looked around then gone straight back into the Embassy, rung the State Department and complained Olivia had threatened him, the idiot.

Each of the three women sitting here with me had an airtight alibi for the time period so the State Department guys had started looking wider, the ME's first, Melinda Warner, Laney Parish and Jo Danville, then when that had fizzled out they'd gone through the 12th Precinct, the other detectives like Karpowski, uniformed officers like Anne Hastings, even non-cops like the facial sketch artist and me, we'd all been grilled to no avail.

One poor State guy had rather suicidally suggested Gates may have been the culprit, though the look she'd given him when asked about her whereabouts had practically melted his balls right where he stood. She'd crossed her arms, looked him slowly up and down then pointed out that her alibi was the thirty plus cops on the floor as she hadn't left her office most of the day, doing annual fitreps on each officer.

As the State guy had wilted Gates told him that unless he was suggesting some grand conspiracy involving everyone at the 12th he'd better get the hell out of her Precinct before she had them all arrested for obstructing Police Officers in the conduct of their duties. They'd left.

I had my own suspicions about who it had been, something I was happy to keep to myself though. While I'd been wool-gathering the discussion had turned to yesterday's arrest of an internal affairs officer, by Captain Gates no less. Olivia was explaining the background.

"Tucker's got it into his head that everyone's bent, he crossed paths with me the first time years ago; he used me in a sting that went bad then dumped me in it. The next time he was sniffing round me and my then partner, claimed we were dirty, but had no proof, just accusations" She shrugged. "He's been like that for probably most of a decade, he sees two cops standing shooting the breeze and immediately assumes some kind of criminal conspiracy" Kate shook her head.

"A whack job" Lieutenant Taylor chimed in.

"People like that are part of the reason Internal Affairs is so hated and feared" He grimaced. "They don't need proof, just suspicion or paranoia, combine that with the power to make a cops life a living hell…" He didn't finish so I jumped in.

"What's likely to happen to him now, I mean he was arrested right?" They looked my way and nodded, with Olivia the first to answer.

"Normally I'd say nothing, IA looks after their own but Captain Gates is ex-IA, that holds a lot more sway that a normal complaint, so we'll see" Kate nodded.

"The Captain said she was going to take it all the way up to the Commissioner, that's a bit hard for IA to ignore" Mac spoke up.

"That's a big call; I didn't know they knew each other?" Kate nodded.

"Apparently they both served in the same precinct years ago, they know each other well enough for Gates to ask to see Reagan and get a slot the same day, just like that" I shook my head, reminding myself to not ever get on Gates' bad side.

"With all that, Lieutenant Tucker can't get out from under what he's done, can he?" Olivia was the one who answered.

"Ordinarily no, but IA people have a habit of sliding out from under any punishment for whatever crap they've pulled" Kate frowned.

"But a complaint from Gates direct to the Commissioner, you can't just sweep that under the carpet, that's got to count for something" Olivia just shrugged.

"We'll see" She shook her head. "I doubt I'm that lucky" She pulled a face then spoke up.

"I doubt I've seen the last of Tucker, unfortunately"


	49. Chapter 49

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 49**

 **Jordan**

I was sitting in Cultural Attaché Belinky's office in the Russian Embassy once more, delivering a message.

"We are certain that Lysenko had an accomplice, one who facilitated his work in getting men and children into this country" Belinsky was blasé about it.

"But the man is dead, so exactly what proof do you have when you make these…accusations?" I shrugged as I worked on remaining impassive in the face of a man I'd quickly come to despise.

"Lysenko needed an accomplice to assist in getting people in and out of the country, someone who could get real passports for his people when they were needed" I have to give it to Belinsky, he was calm despite him realising that we must have worked out he was Lysenko's man in the embassy.

"And what does this supposition have to do with the Russian Embassy, Agent Shaw?" I made a dismissive gesture with my hand, waving his objection away as I spoke, happy to spell it out to make certain Belinsky realised that he was trapped.

"Who would be better placed to facilitate that than the Embassy's resident FSV officer? After all no one dares question his actions, not if they know what's good for them" Belinsky looked at me from the far side of the desk impassively.

"If you are so sure of these ridiculous allegations Agent Shaw, why haven't you approached the Ambassador about having me handed over to you" I smiled humourlessly.

"We both know that no ambassador in his right mind would do any such thing where the FSV Resident is concerned; it's more than his life is worth. No, you'll hide behind diplomatic immunity should I be stupid enough to try any such thing, which I'm not" He smiled altogether too smarmily for my tastes as he spoke.

"Then there is nothing more to talk about, is there?" I shook my head.

"Not officially no however I'm here to give you a heads up" He raised an eyebrow then asked the obvious question.

"About what exactly Agent Shaw?" I calmly explained so he'd realise he was going to find himself boxed in.

"The NYPD and the Bureau are working closely to track down Lysenko's accomplices and his financial dealings. With the amount of attention the case has generated it's got plenty of resources, the Bureau's Cyber Crimes unit is heavily engaged in it and as I'm sure you're aware, everything in cyberspace leaves a trail if you dig deep and hard enough to find it" I smiled quietly. "The Cyber Crimes unit are some of the best there is, they'll find everything sooner or later" Belinsky tried for dismissive.

"Why should this concern me, any such supposed evidence your people produce will be denounced as a blatant entrapment operation using manufactured evidence, nothing will come of it" I nodded, the slimy bastard was all too confident, it was time to shake that confidence.

"I believe that while you may well be correct in your estimation, I feel it would be in your best interests to leave the country, soon" Belinsky waved away my statement with an airy hand as he replied.

"Why Agent Shaw, what do I have to fear? I tell you I have done nothing illegal since I have arrived here and as you have agreed your accusations would come to nothing" I nodded, seemingly agreeably.

"My NYPD colleagues Detectives Benson and Beckett and Lieutenant Taylor all have taken this case very personally" I tipped my head to regard him as I continued. "When they find out who was Lysenko's partner and realise that you have diplomatic immunity, they are likely to take action" Belinsky sat a little straighter.

"What action? Is that a threat Agent Shaw?" I shrugged, uncaring of his concerns.

"All of them are experienced officers, all of them have contacts within the criminal community and many of those criminals will not take kindly to the use of children in the way Lysenko did, all it would take is a word to the right people and the person in question would end up on a slab as a murder victim, unless their body was never found" His outrage might have been real, or maybe faked, not that I cared.

"You dare to threaten me Agent Shaw?" I shook my head.

"You misunderstand me, I make no threats Mister Attaché; instead I am simply conveying information important to your continued health" He scowled at me from the other side of the desk.

"As I say, threats" I smiled, though I didn't mean it.

"Not at all, simply that given your…activities, you should return to Russia forthwith, somewhere you are beyond a request for extradition and any potential extra-judicial reprisals"

"Surely you are speaking in jest Agent Shaw?" Belinsky obviously thought I was bluffing, time to show him I wasn't.

"Does the name Sergei Alexander Popov mean anything to you?" I didn't miss the sudden widening of his eyes before he spoke slowly.

"I am...aware of the man" I sat back, settling into the chair as I spoke.

"Beckett and Benson went and saw him, walked right into Glechik Cafe and sat down and called him out over a cup of coffee for his people's involvement in protecting Lysenko. Popov wasn't happy, especially when they pointed out that the involvement of the Organisatzia may well become public" I shrugged, monumentally unconcerned. "I don't know exactly what was agreed between them, but Popov agreed to their request and pulled all support from Lysenko" I left the thought hang there for a while as I saw Belinsky thinking it over, his eyes staring at his desk top. The attaché was silent as I let him stew for a while until finally I spoke.

"I believe that, as attractive as New York is, you should return home to Moscow…soon" He looked up at me

"Why are you telling me this Agent Shaw, why should you seek to aid me?" I looked at him as I sat forward, resting my elbows on the arms of the chair and lacing my fingers as I regarded him over them.

"Much as it pains me to see you escape the retribution you so comprehensively deserve, I would rather see an unconscionable criminal escape than three fine officers go off the reservation to finalise the case" I thought of what Benson in particular might do if Belinsky walked free and suppressed a small shudder, it wouldn't be pretty. "The NYPD needs good officers and all three are outstandingly good at what they do. The NYPD can't afford to lose any of them seeking closure" Belinsky scrutinised me for a few seconds before speaking.

"So I am to just depart and you will let me?" I shook my head at him once and spoke.

"I'd suggest you have about a week at most before the investigation starts pointing your way" I stood and looked at him. "Moscow is nice this time of year, or so I'm told" he nodded.

"It is" I glanced at my shadow, I'd introduced him to Belinsky as my new partner but Chad Cartwright was actually from the counter-espionage side of the Bureau, I'd needed to bring them into this so I could confront Belinsky; he too stood as I addressed Belinsky.

"I will delay the investigation for as long as I can but for all our sake's you had better be gone before they find out" Belinsky looked at me unblinking for a moment. "My advice Mister Belinsky, is get out of New York while you still can"

With that I turned and left; Chad right beside me. We walked out through the Embassy's doors and towards our car as I glanced up at the building's elegant façade with the Russian flag hanging there. Chad looked at me and spoke.

"We'll keep him under surveillance but I think you're right, he'll be gone in a couple of days" I nodded and asked the obvious question.

"What then?" Chad glanced my way as he answered.

"Once he's out of the country and back in Russia, the FBI and State Department will have a pointed chat to the Russian ambassador" He smiled coldly. "Not a good look to have former and current FSV agents running a child sex slavery ring out of the Russian Embassy" I nodded.

"What will the Russians do?" I looked at him. "Will he be reassigned somewhere else?" Chad shrugged.

"We'll make it clear to the Ambassador and via our liaison people in Moscow that Belinsky is a blown asset, that every allied intelligence agency will be informed of what he's done" Chad glanced back at the embassy before continuing. "Given he was freelancing on the side and a likely embarrassment to both the country's and the FSV's reputation, from Moscow's perspective making attaché Belinsky permanently disappear will make the problem go away" I hit the remote to unlock the car as we approached it as Chad turned to look at me. "We owe you Jordan, we get to disrupt the FSV's activities here in New York and the Russians will have to send another attaché to replace Belinsky, giving us a chance to link them to the agents Belinsky's been running here when the new attaché reaches out to make contact with them"

I felt a sour taste in my mouth, I wanted Belinsky to face trial, to have what he'd done be proven in the full light of day and for him to be sentenced to a life of misery in prison, so many dead all screaming for justice and I was facilitating the primary accomplice's escape…

Chad must have seen it on my face.

"I know it's gotta stick in your craw to see him get away" I looked his way and nodded tightly. "But look at it this way, he's going to pay for what his done, not explicitly because of what he's helped Lysenko do, but he's going to wind up dead just the same" I shook my head.

"That's not justice, hell, it's not even vengeance; it's just politics" I felt like being sick. "It's not right" Chad must have understood why I was so pissed.

"Yeah, but unfortunately we don't see much justice in counter espionage and damned little vengeance either" I nodded as we got into the car.

The trip back to the Bureau's New York headquarters was silent.


	50. Chapter 50

As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us. Thanks for letting us play with, if only for a while.

 **Breaking Barriers Chapter 50**

 **Elsewhere**

Deputy Commissioner David Thomas sat back in his chair and sighed, looking out of the window in his 1PP office with a weary glance, taking in the setting sun, it was an appropriate metaphor he thought.

He'd parlayed money and family power into one of the more powerful positions in New York, as the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Internal Affairs in the NYPD he had an insight into everything that was going on within the Department, all of which gave him the inside track on ousting Reagan from the Commissioner's chair. He'd spent the last few years cultivating allies, people who were happy to support him with money and influence, knowing that in time he'd be their man in the right place to help them in return.

It was power and influence managed by the right people to ensure the right people got into the right places to ensure that things stayed the way they liked it, that was the way the game was played.

Unfortunately one of the people he'd cultivated had turned out to have tastes a little too perverse for safety. City Councillor Gain Syme, well more particularly his money and the influence in City Hall it had bought, had been very helpful in assisting his rise to his current position and would have been even more helpful supporting his bid for the Commissioner's role. Unfortunately since his peccadillo's had been exposed by an investigation into some dead kids not only was that influence as dead as Syme himself, he'd become a liability to anyone associated with him.

While not a total disaster it had probably set his ambitions back by several years, that meant he'd probably have to put off any shot at the Commissioner's job for at least another term, maybe two. Given how much time and effort he'd put into getting to where he was now he wasn't impressed by postponing his ascension for another couple of years.

The trouble was he'd made his fair share of rivals and a few outright enemies during his ruthless rise to his current position, people who would be more than happy to throw Syme's support in his face, tarring him by association with a man who fucked young children.

The situation was intolerable, he certainly wasn't prepared to let something as minor and as inconsequential as this get in his way, he just had to find a way out. He looked up as his chief of staff poked his head through the door and waved him in; Paul Donner had been with him for five years and was exceptional at what he did, ruthless and ambitious, he aspired to taking Thomas' role when Thomas ascended to the Commissioner's position, between them they could mould the NYPD to better reflect their point of view, weeding out those who didn't have a place in their Department.

Taking a seat Donner carefully spoke.

"What now?"

"With that case file out there, spelling out Syme's involvement, we can't move, it's too much ammunition for my rivals" Donner nodded slowly then spoke quietly; it was a point of personal pride that he never raised his voice, he didn't have to.

"Perhaps not" At Thomas' raised eyebrow he continued. "I've looked into the case and we may be in luck. The Russian at the centre of the case has died, he didn't survive a gunshot from one of the investigating detectives" Thomas nodded; he'd seen the executive summary of the shooting team's report, as Donner pressed on. "It appears the man was paranoid to a fault, dosing everyone he encountered with his poison. The antidote to the poison apparently died with him, meaning everyone implicated is going to die" Thomas nodded, seeing a glimmer of where he was going with this.

"Go on" Donner shrugged carefully as he spoke.

"With no one to prosecute there's going to be no case, which means no publicity about Syme's…habits" He shrugged. "With the case dead we can make sure the evidence of Syme's activities vanishes, it'll be a dead issue within six months, particularly if there's no evidence or file to back it up" Thomas thought that over before replying.

"That would mean we'd still be good for the next shot at the top job" Donner nodded and replied.

"Exactly, we make the evidence disappear and the problem goes away"

"I like it, but how do we make sure the files disappear?" Donner smiled carefully before answering.

"There is an officer in IA who has an involvement with this case, a Lieutenant Tucker…" Thomas interrupted irritably.

"Is this the same Tucker that Reagan chewed me out about yesterday, something about carrying on a personal vendetta against another cop" Donner nodded.

"The very same, he has a long-standing issue with a Sergeant Olivia Benson, a 16th Precinct SVU officer who was part of the Syme case, the one who killed that Russian in fact; they've crossed swords before but Tucker has never been able to find anything to support his contentions that she's dirty" Thomas nodded slowly, thinking it through.

Reagan had made it clear that Tucker had crossed a line; he'd been caught by Victoria Gates, the 12th Precinct's captain and a former IA officer herself, though back before his time heading up Internal Affairs. Her complaints couldn't simply be swept under the rug, not helped by the fact that she'd gone straight to Reagan himself, apparently they knew each other as fellow uniformed officers years ago. Normally Thomas would have made her pay for that little insult but he didn't need any more enemies right now, he'd take care of Gates after he was Commissioner, her and a lot of other cops who'd crossed him knowingly or unknowingly over the years.

"So you think we should make use of Tucker to clean up any loose ends?" Donner nodded once.

"Yes, he's stepped in it and his career's basically ended unless he's thrown a lifeline" Thomas nodded as he thought it over then looked up.

"Let's get Tucker in then" Donner gave a sly smile.

"He's waiting outside" Thomas smiled in return; Donner was as efficient as he was ambitious, making an excellent partner. He leaned over and picked up the desk phone, calling his executive assistant.

"Marcy, I understand there's a Lieutenant Tucker in the waiting area?"

" _Yes Mister Thomas_ "

"Please show him in" 30 seconds later Marcy was closing the door as Tucker stood there.

"Lieutenant Tucker, have a seat" Tucker nodded warily and took the indicated chair as Thomas looked him over then spoke.

"I have Commissioner Reagan after your hide, apparently you let your emotions get the better of you and went off over at the 12th precinct house" Tucker held himself still as he responded.

"I was interrogating a suspect when Captain Gates inserted herself into my investigation" Donner spoke, his voice flat.

"You got caught" Tucker looked at him but kept his mouth shut, suggesting he wasn't a fool, after a few seconds silence Thomas spoke.

"Ordinarily that would see your career end here and now however Reagan's handed your problem over to me to resolve" Tucker nodded, obviously awaiting the bad news. "Basically I can see you kicked out of the Department just as soon as the paperwork's processed, but I can use my discretion" Tucker remained silent, eyes flicking between Thomas and Donner before finally speaking.

"Yes?"

"I have need of an officer in IA who will do certain jobs I need done with no questions asked" Thomas shrugged. "In return, if you do as I ask and deliver what I need, your career doesn't have to end here" Donner nodded.

"Play your cards right and you might just make captain" Tucker thought it over for all of five seconds.

"What sort of things do you want me to do?" Thomas smiled; it was what he'd expected.

"Anything I ask, basically Lieutenant Tucker, you don't just work for me, I own you" The room was silent as Tucker grappled with the implications of that statement before he eventually and obviously acquiesced.

"Okay, what do you want me to do?"

 **Olivia**

I stormed back up into the bullpen of the 12th in as foul a mood as you'd ever want to see; Kate saw it as her eyes widened, obviously wondering what the hell had ticked me off. I wasted no time filling her in.

"The case files and all the evidence is gone from records" She frowned as she spoke.

"What do you mean gone?" I didn't mince words.

"Exactly what I'd said, gone, all the hard copy evidence, the signed depositions, the physical samples, the crime scene imagery, everything's gone"

"What does the records show, who had it last?" I shook my head angrily, that had been my first thought too.

"That's just it, the last person to have it was you, you signed it back in last night and the record's guy signed for it, no one's signed for it since but it's all gone" Kate's jaw snapped shut as she started thinking, after about 20 seconds she looked at me, anguish in her voice.

"Jesus, that means the chain of custody's broken, none of the evidence is admissible" I nodded as she pressed on, her voice changing as she thought it through. "Someone really wanted to kill the case" I frowned.

"Pretty much everyone who might want it gone is either dead or dying, so it can't be them" Kate was quick.

"Someone else wanted that case gone, someone powerful enough to make it vanish" I nodded and asked the obvious.

"But who?" Kate shook her head, her jaw setting as she thought about it, finally she spoke.

"I have no idea, yet" I knew that look; Kate wanted to know, needed to know, the same as I did.

We spent the next hour talking to the records people, they had no record of the file being checked out; someone though had waltzed in and walked out with three large evidence boxes with no one the wiser.

Finally we ended up back in the Homicide break room as Kate made us coffee.

"It has to be someone inside the Department, they couldn't have got into that part of the building otherwise, especially out of hours. With Gates' okay we'd got Tori to look through the access logs, all she'd turned up had been a single suspicious visit late last night, someone using an un-allocated Internal Affairs identity card had swiped in and out after 11 last night.

There was no doubt they were our thieves, but we had no way of knowing who it was. An IA flag had immediately suggested Tucker but this didn't feel like him, he was by the book to a fault and rigid as fuck, stealing evidence wasn't his style plus he had nothing to gain from it.

We'd kicked it upstairs to IA but they'd come back after two hours to tell us that ID hadn't been issued, whoever had used it wasn't an IA member; I'd tried to ask who could have authorised the card but run into the usual IA wall of silence, getting the 'sorry I can't help you' run-around, making me slam the phone down hard.

"No luck?" At Kate's words I looked up and shook my head.

"They say it wasn't one of them and they won't tell me how one of their IDs got issued to a ghost and then turned up here" I sat back and ran my hands through my hair in frustration.

"A dead end, it involves IA but no one knows nothing" Kate nodded wearily.

"Normally something like this, if we'd not found anything, would be kicked to IA for an investigation, particularly with a high-profile case hanging on it, but with this case…" She frowned. "There's going to be no one to prosecute and handing it to IA…" She left that thought hanging as I grimaced.

My eyes dropped to my computer screen and noticed that the blue bar on one particular part of my desktop had filled up. I clicked 'close' and removed the memory stick from the port, getting up and walking over to Kate's desk where I placed a 64 gig USB stick on the desk top then pushed it her way. She looked at it then up to me.

"What's that?" I kept my voice down.

"A copy of all the evidence we had, I made a working copy of everything we had scanned or on file, it's not the physical evidence but it's everything else" Kate nodded, looking from the memory stick to me.

"This stuff's not admissible in court, why give it to me?" I grimaced as I replied.

"Someone wanted that file gone badly enough to steal it out of our records area, did it without a trace, someone's really, really motivated" I shrugged with a nonchalance I didn't feel" "I want you to have a copy just in case" Kate's eyes narrowed as she spoke.

"In case of what?" I knew she wasn't going to like what I said next.

"In case something happens to one of us" Her eyes widened.

"Jesus Liv, that's a bit extreme!" I glanced around and kept my voice low.

"Keep your voice down Kate" She nodded and looked round to see if anyone had heard her as I pressed on. "Is it, really Kate?" I shook my head. "Someone had enough power to get into records to steal all the evidence, to basically make the case go away, without that we can't proceed, it's dead in the water" I shook my head at the sheer audacity of the thief. "If this was a case with a victim to testify and someone to prosecute that right there would be a massive red flag, but with no one to charge and prosecute there's damn all interest in it so they can make it just vanish and the brass either don't know or don't care" I could tell Kate wasn't sold so I pressed on, making my case.

"Look Kate, someone powerful made that vanish, made the whole damned case vanish, when you think about it, it's not all that far away from that to making other things go away too" I frowned. "We both work the streets; that places us at risk" "Kate peered up at me.

"Jesus, you're serious" I looked round once; taking in the floor, no one was paying any attention to us and nodded.

"Hell yeah, a shot in the dark on an investigation and one of us goes away, if we keep digging it could happen again" I shrugged. "The nature of the crimes we do makes us both targets, and it doesn't cost all that much for a ganger with a gun"

"You're actually serious" I nodded as she realised I was, I had my suspicions and wanted Kate to be careful, if that meant maybe overstating things, then so be it.

"You better believe it Kate. Someone wanted this investigation shut down, someone powerful enough to fake an IE pass and get away with it scot free, if we make too much noise about this, well we might just end up a loose end that needs to be dealt with too" Kate tipped her head down to look at the USB before sweeping it up and into her jacket pocket.

"I'll keep your copy but I think you're nuts"

"Better alive to be nuts than not" She looked up to regard me as she spoke.

"Paranoid much?" I wasn't having a bar of it.

"Like the saying says, it ain't paranoia if they are out to get you"


	51. Chapter 51

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 51**

 **Alex**

We were gathered together one last time, here to watch another child, the last child, die.

Viktoriya was beautiful, warm brown eyes offsetting a pale complexion and ice-blonde hair, now though she was lying there, drifting in and out of awareness as the drugs fought the pain.

We were all taking it hard, Liv especially so, she blamed herself for it, despite our reassurances that she wasn't responsible, Lysenko was. I knew her though, knew her like no other; Liv bore the burdens of her job like a penance for the losses she'd had, she'd carry these deaths with her to the grave. Nothing we'd say would really change that.

The small body was even tinier in the bed as she came and went, in and out of awareness, surrounded by the trappings of modern medicine, all of which were simply futile adornments as we waited for death to claim another young victim, something Liv obviously felt keenly. She looked down at the sleeping child and spoke.

"I'm so sorry Viktoriya, so very sorry" She went to turn away when a quiet, sleepy voice answered, surprising us all.

"Why?" At the soft, accented voice we all looked up to see her staring at us. None of us could speak; Liv was the first one to be able to reply. Wiping her eyes on her sleeve she stood up straight as she spoke.

"I failed you, I killed Lysenko and…well he poisoned you which is why you are sick, that's on me for killing him" Viktoriya looked up from the pillow, so very fragile and spoke.

"He hurt me, he…used me, whenever he wanted to" She moved her head slightly then continued, her voice quiet. "He liked me because I was the oldest, said he wanted a woman, not a child" I felt my stomach heave at that as I fought to not be sick, she was barely seventeen, still a child in my eyes, not a woman, now she'd never be one.

"I'm so sorry Viktoriya, we all are" The girl, old beyond her years, nodded at Liv's words and pushed out a question past the pain.

"He cannot hurt anyone anymore, yes?" Several of us shook our heads as Kate spoke softly.

"No, not anyone else" Viktoriya nodded once, moistening her lips, which were dry from the medication, Jordan was quickest, grabbing the glass of water from the bedside table and holding the straw so she could drink slowly. Finally she nodded that she'd had enough and then started speaking slowly.

"That is good, that he no longer hurts people. It hurts, much hurt now, but so did some of the things that were done to me, I don't hurt as much now, not like then…everything is…strange, is distant? I do not have English word?" Kate spoke up from the other side.

"Plavuchiy?" Viktoriya nodded at the word, I suppose it was Russian.

"Plavuchiy, yes" Kate looked round at us.

"Means floating" We nodded, that was the drugs, taking the edge off the pain as Viktoriya tried to focus on Liv, fighting the drowsiness and the drugs.

"You have to apologise for nothing, we all go sometime" She was silent for a few seconds, then rallied and pressed on. "My time is early, but is good, I will be with god"

I felt something clench hard around my heart at that, but it was nothing compared to the effect of her next words.

"But if it makes easy, god forgives you, he loves you and if he can I can forgive you, love you, too"

Liv nodded once, jerkily then turned away as I pulled her into a hug, feeling her silent shakes as she cried into my shoulder. I looked around the room, at Kate and Castle, Jordan and Mac and Tori and the others, all standing vigil for something we all knew was coming.

We spent the next half hour or so talking to her, it turned out she had a family near Murmansk and she'd been kidnapped from there on her way home from school. We promised her that we would let her family know about her, and that no-one would harm them. She was terrified that her younger sister and brother would be taken, that had been one of the threats Lysenko and his local thugs back in Russia had used to keep her in line, if she tried to escape or tell anyone that they would be taken and her parents killed.

Now though we promised her that her family was safe, we'd pass everything we'd learned from her and the other kids on to the militia and they'd track down the people who'd kidnapped her while making sure her family was protected.

She started to swim in and out of consciousness over the next hour; the nurses who kept coming in to check her vitals unable to hide their sadness, their helplessness. For all their skills, their technology and medicines Viktoriya was slipping away and we all knew it. Father Dmitri, the hospital's Russian Orthodox priest came by, one last little Orthodox girl to administer last rites to like he had so many others of late as we all stood witness.

We fell silent until the only noises in the room were the sounds of breathing and the machines watching over the frail, small shape in the bed, as if we were waiting for death to arrive, as he had so often with this case.

Finally, as many of us sat quietly or partially dozing came the hateful screech of the heart monitor, followed by the arrival of the crash cart team. One last time they fought for a little girl's life and once more they lost the battle. We all stood there as the head nurse carefully reached out and flicked a switch, cutting off the mournful, miserable wail of the flat line tone as Liv pulled me into her arms and cried. The doctor bowed his head for a moment as I heard him recite a snatch of the Lord's Prayer before turning to where we stood.

"I'm so sorry" He looked from one to the other of us. "So very, very sorry" We stood there for a second before I felt Liv collapse onto me, her sobs inconsolable as I turned to settle her in the chair.

"Liv, Liv, can you hear me?" I tried getting through to her with no effect; she was lost in the darkness of her grief and misery and regret. I looked up to see everyone was dealing with this in their own way, most with tears, even Mac and Esposito, both toughened veterans that they were, were busy wiping at their eyes, Jordan and Kate and Tori didn't even bother with that as tears ran down their faces, the same as they did mine.

Wiping away at mine I sat on the arm of her chair as I tried to get through to Liv, feeling her shoulders heaving with silent, racking sobs. I knew what was wrong, it wasn't just Viktoriya and the others, she was weeping for her role in their deaths and for a decade or more of victims she hadn't been able to help.

She'd been strong and stoic and there for the victims for 13 long years, now she had lost the fight to hold it together as the guilt and loss and misery took hold, honestly I was amazed she'd held it together for so long. I wasn't sure what to do, Liv suffered from the occasional black moments, it was an occupational hazard at SVU, but this was much worse. Usually it would be a bad day or two before she pulled out, now though she was lost, lost in the darkness of pain and regret, shame and misery, the black dog of depression that had for so long dogged her heels had finally claimed her.

"Take her home Alex" It was Gates, speaking from near the door, I hadn't seen her arrive. There was real sadness on her face as she looked down at Viktoriya, lying so still on the bed, then back at me. "Look after her" I nodded, seeing the pain in everyone else's face as, with Kate's help I got Liv standing before nodding and guiding a sobbing Liv out of the room.

We needed time, time to process, time to recover, time to heal; we all did.

 **Kate**

I watched as Alex guided a sobbing Liv out of the room, worried. Liv had been hit hard by this, we all had but Liv bore each death as her responsibility; she'd been here for every one of those kid's last moments, each passing life adding a bigger burden to her already leaden soul.

Gates held the door as Alex and Liv passed through, her face somber, before turning back to us.

"Mister Castle" He turned, looking at Gates.

"Yes Sir" She waved at the door.

"I don't expect to see Detective Beckett back in the Precinct until next Monday, am I clear?" He nodded once as he replied quietly.

"As crystal Captain" I nodded as she turned to Tori, Esposito and Ryan. "The same goes for you as well" They all nodded and there was a subdued chorus of "Yes Sir". Gates then spoke to Jordan and Mac.

"I'm not your direct commander, but I strongly recommend you take some time to yourself, this has been a dreadful case and you need to put it into some kind of context" Jordan and Mac both nodded. Gates looked back at the small body lying there and spoke softly.

"I'm proud to have had you as part of my team, I just wish it had been under very different circumstances" She straightened a little, the softness replaced by the 'Iron' Gates we recognised. "I'll be conveying my appreciation to each of your superiors for the outstanding job you've done. I understand this isn't the result any of us wanted, but the only thing we can do is concentrate on the fact that no more children will suffer as these ones have" She shook her head. "It's not much but it's all we have" She looked round the room and nodded.

"Dismissed" With that she turned and left, leaving us there.

We exchanged handshakes and hugs with the others before Castle quietly steered me outside and down to his Mercedes, getting in we headed out of the city, heading for the Hamptons, somewhere we could be together and I could let go and cry like I needed to, let the misery and hopelessness and pain out.

I'd hold it together till then.

 **Mac**

I was sitting in my office, looking over the pile of paperwork that had built up over the last few days while I'd been lost in the last of the case, not feeling any desire to open any of it; I'd had enough meaningless death for one day.

Catching movement from the corner of my eye I looked up to see Jo leaning in my doorway, watching me. We exchanged sad, wan smiles, it seemed to be the day for it, the team had left me alone mostly, I suspect word had got around quickly, bad news usually travels fast.

We chatted for a moment before I turned to look at a picture of my son on the mantle. So many kids dead, families who'd lost their sons and daughters. Without thinking I reached out and grabbed it, looking at him, a young man now, he'd once been a young boy just like Daniil and Gregoryi, Kirill, Nikolai and Stepan, they were all gone now, all dead at Lysenko's hand. I shook my head, so much death, so many dead.

"Call him Mac, just…call him" I looked up from the picture in my hand to see her there.

"I'm not being overly dramatic am I?" Jo smiled, a little sadly.

"Mac, you watched all those kids die, it's hit everyone. I know Lanie and Mel are both taking some time to get over it, I'm heading home and not coming in for a few days" I looked up at that and raised an eyebrow.

"You are?" She nodded gravely before speaking.

"Yeah, my boss signed off on it, just before he agreed to take some time too" I tipped my head to regard her; Jo wasn't normally this bossy…

"I did, did I?"

"You should Mac" She nodded at the picture. "Call him, maybe spend some time together" I nodded slowly, it was a good idea, getting a small smile in return before she waved, then turned and left. I stared at my phone for a moment before reaching out and speed dialing my son. His cell rang for a moment before he picked up.

"Hey, it's me, how have you been...same old...I was wondering, would you like to get away for a few days, maybe go fishing or something? Yeah, it kinda would. No, it'll be fine, I need to get out of here…yeah, it's been kinda rough…yeah, I'll tell you all about it over a beer when we get away" I smiled into the receiver at the answer. "Great, call me back when you confirm it"

I ended the call and sat back; maybe some time away was just what I needed. Remind myself that life wasn't all about pain and death and horror, god knows I saw enough of that, maybe I needed some time away from it. Jo was right, I needed this. I looked out my door and into the corridor but she was long gone. I was lucky to have friends, old ones like Jo and new ones that I'd made on this case; with friends like that I could get through this.

I fired off an email to my boss, telling him I was taking some of my accumulated leave, effective immediately, he'd know why; a couple of others to people who would cover for me for the next few days and one to Jo thanking her for the push.

That done, I stood, grabbed my coat and walked to the door, turning out the lights to the office, for the next few days I had another job, an important one as I tried putting this one behind me and concentrated on living.

 **Jordan**

I climbed out of my car, feeling bone weary. I'd worked late into the night, finished up all the outstanding paperwork, clearing my desk so I could take a few days off; Gates had been right, I needed this, we all did.

I retrieved my bag and closed the door to the car, turning to walk up to the front door, seeing Dale standing there, compassion and love and worry on his face. He swung the door back out of the way and held his arms open in invitation, one I happily fell into, just sagging against him as I let go, just needing to be held as I felt him planting kisses to my head.

Without realising it I'd started to cry, letting my bag fall to the floor as I wrapped both arms round his strong waist and just let go, crying my eyes out for so many dead kids. I don't know how long I clung to him before I finally pushed back, looking up to see the concern there.

"You okay honey?" I shook my head.

"No not really, but I will be" He nodded; thank god I'd married a man who understood both me and the job.

"Do you want some dinner?" I shook my head tiredly.

"I'm too tired to eat, besides I had some food at work" I didn't tell him I'd done a run on the vending machines, filling up on corn chips and chocolate in a comfort food binge. I stepped back and picked up my bag, placing it on the table near the door. Dale just nodded and tipped his head towards the bedroom.

"Go get changed and hop into bed" I nodded and dragged myself up the hall, stopping to look in on our four year old daughter Cassie, sleeping safe and sound, Goldie curled up at the foot of her bed protectively. To think there was a world out there filled with monsters that preyed on children like her, the thought made me ill. Dale appeared behind me, for a big man he could move quietly when he wanted.

"You okay?" I shook my head then spoke quietly.

"I want to sleep with her tonight" He nodded once, not questioning me for which I was grateful.

"Get changed and get ready for bed"

I nodded, walking up the hall into our bedroom and grabbing an oversized tee from the drawer as I headed to the en-suite. A few minutes later, makeup scrubbed off, teeth cleaned and other needs dealt with I walked back in to find he'd moved her into our big bed, off to one side where I could hold Cassie. I carefully climbed in and snuggled up against her, wrapping myself around her protectively as Dale tuned off the bedside light and wrapped himself carefully around us both, making me feel safe.

A few minutes later there was a quiet click of claws on the floor as Goldie wandered in, leaning up and sniffing at Cassie and me before heading over into the corner of the room where he could keep an eye on us.

I was beyond tired but sleep was a long time coming; I lay there for a long time, just staring at Cassie, almost afraid to close my eyes in case something took her from me, before finally exhaustion claimed me.


	52. Chapter 52

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 52**

 **Alex**

It was my first day back at work after a week off as I walked into the familiar surrounds of the grungy SVU floor once again, though it didn't feel the same without Liv's eyes already on the door waiting for me. I'd often wondered how she was always looking up at me until she'd sheepishly admitted after we got together that she was attuned to the sound of my heels on the tiles, almost like a sixth sense. She even said that my steps didn't sound like anyone else's, Casey's had a different cadence, so did Jo and Abbie and Kim and all the others; according to her no one else had the 'Cabot strut'.

I exchanged good wishes with the guys, including Amaro who was now back on light duties nursing the ligaments in his still-healing knee but without a partner until Liv came back off leave, whenever that might be; in fact that was what had brought me down here in the first place. After chatting with the team for a while, talking cases and fielding well wishes for Liv I made my way across to Don Cragen's office.

At my knock he looked up and smiled then stood in old-fashioned courtesy.

"Alex, come on in, how are you?" I smiled and took the chair he indicated as he sat back down.

"I'm okay thank you Don, how are you?"

"As well as can be expected, not looking forward to another winter though" His smile widened slightly. "Every year retirement in Florida looks better and better" My smile changed to a grin.

"What, and leave this wonderful lifestyle and career?" He chuckled as he sat back in his chair and regarded me.

"Someone's got to do it, it might as well be me" We smiled at each other over the desk, Don had been a good friend to an inexperienced attorney back in the day and a better friend to an experienced ADA and her partner.

"Why not, you've earned it" He played my words off with a gesture and asked the question I'd come to answer.

"How's Liv?" I frowned; I didn't have to sugar coat it for Don, not when he knew both Liv and the grim grind that was SVU's stock in trade. The last week had been bad, watching Liv spiral into the darkness, seeing the despair and misery take hold. I'd taken the week off to be with her, something she told me over and over had helped, that she'd be much worse without me there to help her through the worst of it.

Truth be told I hadn't done much, at times it felt the best thing I could do was hold her as she cried, and tears there had been as one of the strongest women I'd even met crumbled. In the last few days she'd show signs of getting better, at least the blackness seemed to be lifting, as she started to show some interest in living once more. She just needed time, which was what had brought me here.

"Not well Don, you've heard about the case I suppose?"

"Yes, Captain Gates was kind enough to keep me informed" At my surprised look he smiled, a little wistfully. "Victoria and I go back a long way, long before she ended up in Internal Affairs" He shrugged. "She was good there but she's better off running officers in the field" I nodded as he summed up the 12th Precinct's formidable Homicide Captain.

"So you know about the case they were working on?" He nodded soberly.

"A bad one" He grimaced and corrected himself. "Well worse than bad, pretty horrific from what I've been told" I nodded; it had been all that and so much worse.

"It was, all those kids…" I drifted off, in total twenty kids had died at Lysenko's hands, that poison had defied the best efforts of labs all over the country to find a way to even slow it down, let alone stop what was, as one scientist had put it, ' _cold war paranoid spy craft at its horrifying best_ '. Don nodded once in understanding and spoke up.

"How is Liv taking it all?" I grimaced as I replied.

"Not good, as you'd imagine she's taking it very hard" He nodded slowly as I pushed on. "She watched most of those kids die in hospital Don, naturally she blamed herself for every one of them" He grimaced as he replied.

"That's Liv" I nodded then pushed on.

"It's like each death stole something more out of her, she's a mess right now" I shook my head. "It's like everything's caught up with her" Don nodded, his expression a little tired, a little sad.

"Liv's been at this for longer than anyone in SVU history, she's got a year or two on Munch even so it's not exactly surprising it's getting to her" He shook his head. "And add in kids to the mix…" I smiled sadly, he wasn't wrong.

"When Viktoriya, the last of the children, died…well Liv broke down, she's fragile right now Don, way too much to come back to work right now" Don nodded slowly then spoke.

"I understand, does she want to take it as leave or do you want the paperwork for sick leave?" He made an offhand gesture. "Either's fine with me and god knows she has enough of both backed up" I appreciated what he wasn't saying, most cops didn't want sick leave, especially sick leave for emotional or psychiatric reasons, on their record, considering it something that might be looked at badly when promotion boards came up.

"I'm not sure Don, I'll have to talk to Liv" He nodded.

"Look after her Alex" He smiled as he amended his statement. "Not that you don't already but she really needs you right now" I nodded sadly then replied, my voice quiet.

"It's hit her really hard Don, I've never seen her like this before" He nodded.

"As I said, I completely understand" He grimaced. "In a way I'm surprised it's taken so long" He looked up at me and forced a smile. "SVU has a way of getting to you, I'm just happy she's got you Alex, she doesn't have to go through this alone"

"Never" I shook my head. "It's hard Don, she's really taken this to heart; Liv's deep in misery and despair and can't see a way out of it…" I trailed off then rallied, putting some positivity into my voice. "She will, I'm sure of it, but it's going to take time" He nodded.

"I understand, take the time for her, this was a bad one" I shook my head.

"As bad as any she's had, plus IA gave her a really hard time" He frowned.

"Really, I know she's had issues over her career with IA but why now?" I scowled, I had my own opinion of Tucker from IA, he'd never come near me, for his sake it had better stay that way.

"It's Tucker, he came after Liv and tried to insinuate that she was trigger happy, came out and stated in his 'opinion' that everyone died because Liv was too quick to shoot Lysenko" Don's sudden black scowl made no secret about how he felt on that point.

"Liv's nothing like that, we all know that"

"Well Tucker went after her on that" I shook my head then smiled. "It didn't work out all that well for him, Captain Gates heard him and tore strips off him, apparently it was something to see, Tucker lost it and threatened Liv and another detective on the case in front of Captain Gates and she had him arrested" Don's sudden grin was a joy to behold.

"Don't piss off 'Iron' Gates, it won't end well" I nodded.

"It didn't, not only did she have him arrested for threatening NYPD officers, she went to the Commissioner about him" At that info Don shook his head.

"I'd like to hope it'll have an impact but rats like Tucker seem to survive anything, no matter what's thrown at them they manage to survive" I nodded.

"Hopefully that will get IA off Liv's case for a while, she doesn't need that on top of everything else that's she's been through" Don nodded.

"Agreed, get her to fill in the leave form however you guys want to play it and I'll sign off on it" He smiled. "Maybe you should both take some time, go somewhere far away from New York and unwind" I smiled and nodded, that sounded so nice, never happen though, not with our stupidly busy work schedules, in fact Cutter was already on my back about the week I'd demanded to have off to be there for Liv.

"I'll suggest it to Liv, it's a good idea" He smiled slyly, realising exactly how likely it was too.

"Course it is, I came up with it" We shared smiles for a moment before I discreetly checked my watch; I had a case conference I had to get to in under 30 minutes.

"I'm going to have to run Don…" He nodded and turned back to his computer, printing off some forms and then standing to walk around his desk, handing them to me as I stood.

"Look after yourself Alex, and look after Liv too, be sure and give her my best" I nodded and before I knew it I was getting a hug, it felt really, really good. Unfortunately it ended, all too soon and I looked into his eyes, smiling happily.

"I will Don, and thank you, for everything" He winked at me.

"Hey, I got to hug a pretty blonde and make her smile, that's a win in my book" I smiled even wider and got one in return before I nodded and made my way out into SVU. As I passed through I got well wishes from the team for Liv and myself both, making me feel just a little better.

Things might be bleak right now, but we had good friends with us and that made things just a little more bearable.


	53. Chapter 53

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 53**

 **Olivia**

"I spoke to Cutter today about the case" At Alex's statement I looked up from dinner; I'd forced myself out of bed and out of the loft, gone shopping for something that didn't come out of a packet or was home delivery, instead I'd tried my hand at Apricot Chicken, a recipe I'd been given by one of our friends that was something simple I could make myself, it was pretty good actually.

In fact Alex had been effusive in her praise and had quickly cleaned her plate, though whether that was because it was that tasty, because she was hungry or because she was just relived seeing me a little more alive today when she'd got home I didn't know. At least I'd had a shower, got dressed and looked a little more like myself for the first time in a week.

"Oh, what's happening about it?" Alex looked across at me, her expression hardening in anger.

"Nothing good" She shook her head. "He's not proceeding with the case"

"What?!" With effort I calmed myself down, Alex didn't deserve my anger. "Why the hell not?"

"He says that without the evidence he has nothing to prosecute with and no one to prosecute since everyone who came into contact with Lysenko is dead" I felt my teeth grind together in anger before finally I managed to grind out a reply.

"That's complete bullshit"

"I know" She reached out and laid her hand over mine. "I was as outraged as you"

"But if we could get the evidence…" I let that thought die off, I knew the answer already; something Alex confirmed as she sat back, her hands moving eloquently as she spoke.

"I asked but because we can't guarantee the chain of custody the defence would move to have it thrown out and a judge would probably uphold it. Even if they didn't and the trial went ahead, you can bet there'd be an appeal and the appeals court would almost certainly overturn the judgement, something no judge wants on their record"

I shook my head, trying to understand how this had all gone to hell. Well not how, I knew that, but why.

"But it's wrong, all wrong" Alex looked across the table and then reached out to take my hand in hers as she spoke soothingly.

"I know. But Cutter thinks that because everyone's dead or dying and because we have no leads on the clients, well except for Syme and he's dead, there's nothing for the NYPD to follow up on and therefore there's no one left to prosecute even if he had the evidence anyway and with the case pretty much coming to a dead end…" I thought about that for a moment.

"What about those bastards that paid Lysenko thousands to rape underage kids, doesn't that count?" Alex looked hurt as I realised I'd raised my voice.

"Hey Liv, I'm on your side here" I nodded and smiled wanly even as I gently squeezed her hand.

"I know and I'm really sorry Angel, it's just so wrong, it's all wrong" She nodded slowly as she replied.

"Without a valid custody chain though he doesn't see that we have a case to take to court if we had any leads on the clients to follow up on" She shrugged. "That's why they closed the case and sent everyone went back to their usual jobs" She shook her head. "There just weren't any leads to go on" I looked up at her, hearing the misery in my voice.

"So whoever they are, they just walk off unscathed?" At my forlorn question Alex smiled sadly at me for a moment before she spoke quietly.

"Unfortunately, but at least you put a stop to Lysenko before he could destroy more lives"

"At way too high a cost Angel" " _Way too high_ ' I thought before I continued. "Besides, people with that sort of money; they'll just find someone else to pander to their perversions" Alex nodded in sympathy, she knew it as well as I did.

"I know Liv, I do, but we can't win them all, YOU can't win them all" It was true but it wasn't easy to swallow.

"Doesn't make it any easier" She smiled a little as she spoke.

"I know, but isn't that what you tell me when I lose a case?" The fact that she was right and that it was good advice didn't really help much.

"That's not the same though Alex, even if you lose, what they've done has been exposed in court, it's public and they have to live with the knowledge that everyone can know; it's out there where a Google search will find it. Here no one will ever know"

"I understand Liv, it's just that there's no case to prosecute and no one to stand trial" She shrugged and shook her head. "Unless something turns up, the case is dead in the water" I nodded.

"So they just continue doing what they've been doing without anyway of tracking them down" Alex shook her head sadly as she spoke.

"Unfortunately no, I mean if the evidence was still available there might be some way to keep investigating, maybe as a cold case or something similar, but with the evidence missing, even if they used the copies of the files you saved to keep digging, they'd never be able to prosecute anyone they found because the custodial chain of evidence was broken and we can't produce the originals in court" I nodded slowly, knowing she was right but feeling way too many surging emotions right now; angry and sad and bitter and anguished all at once.

My emotions had been raw and edgy for far too long and since Viktoriya they'd been overwhelming me, I'd never been this emotionally raw and helpless, it took very little to make me cry or send me into a black pit of depression, I seemed to have lost control of my emotions, now they were controlling me. Alex, bless her, understood and gave me time to think, taking the plates and cutlery and placing them in the dishwasher as I sat there. Returning she stood by me and laid a hand on my shoulder, pulling me from my dark thoughts.

"Liv? You there?" I nodded and forced a smile.

"I guess" I took a deep breath. "So it's over?" She knew what I meant; being Alex she didn't sugar-coat it, telling me straight.

"Probably, with no public interest in the case and no way of finding the clients, it's unlikely to receive any attention" She shook her head sadly. "The disappearance of the evidence was the killer though, without it there's no way anyone will ever go to trial, even if somehow the client list ever turned up" I nodded slowly.

"I guess I knew…I just didn't want it to go like this, with no one held responsible for what they've done" She smiled.

"I understand Tiger, I really do," her smile brightened a little. "How about a coffee?" Realising she was trying to pull me out of my head I nodded and smiled in return and she headed over to the coffee machine as I sat there, mulling over what she'd said.

With no public interest…


	54. Chapter 54

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 54**

 **Olivia**

I'd sat and brooded for hours this morning after Alex had left for work, thinking over her words from dinner last night.

I was utterly pissed that the bastards who'd paid for Lysenko's obscene business were going to get away scot-free, even Syme was being lauded as a hero, he'd been buried yesterday at a private ceremony, a polite euphemism for the fact that his wife and kids had stayed well away from it and anything to do with him.

Instead we had a laudatory piece in the Times this morning from one of his political allies and another from one of his supporters, both highlighted his 'unceasing efforts' against crime, his support for tougher sentencing, his commitment to the right of victims…

I tossed the paper across the room with an angry snarl, seeing it fall apart and end up scattered across the floor, Syme had been a rock spider and a soulless predator but his political allies were using the press to cover for his crimes. I wondered if anyone in the press actually knew, or even cared; probably not.

After a few seconds I frowned to myself, that wasn't really fair and I knew it, I knew a couple of people in the media and they'd be horrified if they had any inkling of what had happened. They didn't though, the NYPD had clamped down on the story, the word from on high was to let to go; there was no one to prosecute so there was no 'good news' story to push out to the media. It felt like the NYPD was as blind to the victims as the DA's office was.

Surely there had to be some way the people out there who actually paid their taxes and paid for the NYPD and the DA's office could find out, stirring everyone into action. The only way that was going to happen was by the media though; sometimes it seemed they were the only people the higher ups listened to.

Making up my mind I pulled out my cell and made a call.

" _Andrea Sachs_ " I smiled, she'd obviously not looked at who was calling, probably distracted.

"Hi Andrea, its Olivia Benson" The delight in her voice was a joy to hear.

" _Liv! Oh my god how are you, it's been a while; that dinner at La Kusher right?_ " I smiled, that had been a particularly good night with her and Miranda.

"Yep, that was a while ago" I could hear the certainty in her voice.

" _Too long, so how have you and Alex been, all good?_ "

"So so I'm afraid" She immediately picked up on the change the tone of my voice.

" _What's up?_ " I gathered up whatever passed for my courage and asked the question.

"Andrea, can we meet?" There was a short pause then she spoke decisively.

" _Sure, of course, how soon?_ " I thought it out for a moment, I hadn't thought it all the way though before, I realised I couldn't dump all of this on just Andrea, all the crap would drop on her and Miranda, Miranda Priestly of all people wouldn't care, but I didn't want Andrea suffering because of what I was going to tell her. I needed time to find some others willing to share the fallout.

"How about tomorrow afternoon, does that work for you?"

" _Sure, what's this about?_ "

"I have a story for you, one you're not going to believe and sure won't want to miss" I could hear the immediate interest in her voice.

" _Okay, when and where?_ "

"I'll text you in a bit with the details" I paused. "Andrea, keep this to yourself, at least till you hear it" I heard the question in her voice.

" _Oh-kay I guess_ " I felt the need to reassure her.

"It's gonna be worth it, I promise you" Her response was certain.

" _Okay then, let me know when and where_ "

"I will, see you tomorrow, and Andrea?"

" _Yeah?_ "

"Thanks"

" _Not a problem Liv, anytime, anywhere_ " I smiled a little at her words, then sobered as I remembered the horror story I was going to drop on her.

"Later Andrea"

" _Chat soon Liv_ "

I ended the call and sat there, staring at my cell for a long time, the die was cast; now I had to follow through. With a decisive move I opened the internal directory and thumbed through to N, then selected Natalie Dearing's number. In seconds her cell was ringing.

" _LAPD Media, this is Natalie_ " I could hear gunshots in the background.

"Hi Nat, its Liv" I heard the smile in her voice immediately.

" _Liv, wonderful to hear from you, sorry I didn't know it was you, I need to add you to my cell's directory, sorry about that_ " I smiled; it was almost as if she felt she had to apologise, but that was Nat. " _I'm out at a firepower demo for the media, let me get inside where it's quiet_ " A few seconds later the noise dropped dramatically. " _That's better, I can hear you now, how are you?_ "

"I'm good Nat, better for hearing your voice" It was true, Natalie was the partner of Bureau agent Anastasia Romanov, both of them were living in LA and were best friends with our best friends, Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles, we caught up with them as often as we could.

" _Flatterer_ " I could hear the smile in her voice. " _What brings you to call me, everything okay with you both?_ "

"Yeah, we're good, but I need a favour" Her reply was instant.

" _Sure, whatever you need_ "

"I know this is a longshot but do you know any good investigative reporters in New York?" There was a silence at the other end for a couple of seconds before she replied.

" _Yeah I do actually, Stephanie Church at WPIX, we were both journalists with different TV stations back in Seattle, back before I joined the Seattle PD doing their media, Steph got a job with a news program in New York. Stephanie's a good journo Liv, she cracked open a couple of big corruption stories back in Seattle, she'd built up quite the rep, all of which helped her get the job in New York_ "

"She sounds good Nat, can you text me her details please?"

" _Sure, is everything alright Liv?_ " I unconsciously nodded.

"Yeah, I just need to get the word out on something and needed a contact" There was a short pause before her voice came back; I could hear the concern in it.

" _Are you and Alex okay?_ "

"Yeah, we're good; this is just setting the record straight on a case" There was a few seconds silence as Natalie thought over what I'd said before she replied, her voice quiet.

" _Steph is really good Liv, plus she knows how to cover her tracks and protect her sources_ " I appreciated what she was saying, but that was Nat, one of the reasons I loved her was not only was she really smart; she was also willing to do whatever necessary for her friends. Sometimes I wondered what I'd done to deserve people like her and Maura and Jane and Ana and Kate in my life.

"Sounds perfect, if you can send her details that'd be great"

We chatted for a couple more minutes about what we'd all been doing, though I played down the case, Nat didn't need to hear about my problems, they were mine to deal with.

It still helped chatting to her though; Natalie was a naturally happy person who just made life a little better for being there. Soon enough though she had to get back to minding the media and so, with a promise to call soon to arrange another visit, she regretfully ended the call.

That left me sitting there for a couple of minutes waiting for Nat's text, during which I thought about what I was doing. I was a cop, we didn't always have the best of relations with the media, reaching out to them went against everything I was used to, I had to repress a feeling of dread, that I was somehow betraying the Department by talking to them.

With a small grimace I shook my head, the Department wasn't going to do anything, the DA's office wasn't either; if all those kids were going to get something approximating real justice, someone had to do something and I had less to lose than the others.

A couple of minutes later I had Stephanie Church's details and called her. As soon as I mentioned Natalie's name she was interested, enough so to meet me on the basis of ' _a story that's going to shake a lot of people_ '.

Ending the call I sat there for a while in the quiet, wondering if I'd done the right thing, I went from yes to no and back again a dozen times in half that many minutes. I was still debating it when my phone dinged at me, announcing a text; it was from Natalie.

' _If you want a really good investigative reporter, try Ben Ulrich at the Bulletin, he's a bit of a legend in the game, plus has a Pulitzer to back it up. I don't have a number but call the Bulletin and they should put you through to him. Love Nat_ '

I sat back and contemplated the screen, I'd heard of Ulrich; never met him but he had a good reputation. With a sigh and a thought of 'the more the merrier' I got up to go look up the Bulletin's number, misery loves company and I was going to share it.


	55. Chapter 55

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 55**

 **Olivia**

I was waiting in Remy's café, a nice place Kate had introduced me to a couple of weeks back, the food was really good though I wasn't hungry; the coffee though was excellent and I had a big cup sitting in front of me as I waited. It was almost 2 when I looked up to see Andrea breeze in, turning when she saw my upstretched arm.

We exchanged greetings and catch-ups for a minute or two before I turned the conversation to work.

"We're waiting for two other people Andrea, Stephanie Church from WPIX and Ben Ulrich from the Bulletin" I got a set of raised eyebrows and a dry retort.

"And here I was thinking you were a one reporter girl; I'm crushed Liv" I smiled sadly.

"If I thought there'd be no blowback it'd be your story Andrea, but this has the potential to piss off a lot of very powerful people, the sort of people who want this story dead and buried" I shrugged. "Sharing the load means no one of you is a target" I could see she was intrigued even as she nodded slowly then spoke.

"I don't know Church but Ulrich is a really good journo, organised crime and political corruption is his normal round" I nodded once.

"This sorta touches on both, so he might be our man" Just then I spotted an attractive blonde with a no-nonsense air walk in and look round as I waved her over.

"You Benson?"

"I am, Stephanie Church I take it?" She nodded and we shook hands before she sat and I waved a waitress over. She'd just finished taking orders when an older guy walked in; he had a lined face that had seen way too much. His eyes lit on me and he walked over.

"Detective Sergeant Olivia Benson, 16th Precinct SVU I take it?" Obviously he'd done his homework.

"That's me, have a seat and I'll get you a coffee" Two minutes later with introductions and coffees all round I explained why I wanted to see them

"It all started with a call out to two separate deaths, both kids, both on the same morning, one in the 16th Precinct, the other in the 12th" I shook my head as I laid it out. "We didn't know they were linked, not at first; that came later, initially each crime was investigated separately, up until it turned out they were linked in the worst way possible" They sat quietly as I ran them through what had happened, though they stopped me a few times, like when I mentioned Syme's name.

"Law and Order Syme, that Syme?" It was Church. I nodded.

"Yep, him" Andrea frowned.

"They buried him a few days back" I nodded again as I looked at her.

"This case got him killed" Ulrich nodded and spoke, getting us back on track.

"Please continue Detective" I nodded and kept going.

By the time I'd finished I could see they'd all got hooked, they were leaning forward, as if they might miss something otherwise. They all wanted this story, I could tell. Finally I wound down and looked around the table over the empty coffee cups.

"Which brings me to sitting here with you, the media, something I've never done before but I'm desperate. No one else wants to know what happened but all those kids died because of Lysenko, he's dead but the people who paid him to let them rape young kids are still out there and as far as the rest of the world knows nothing ever happened"

"It's a great story Detective…" It was Church. "But at the moment it's just a story, we need something concrete" I nodded, I'd anticipated this. Reaching into my jacket pocket I pulled out my hand to show three small USBs in my palm, before letting them drop to the table.

That there is a sanitised version of the case files we've put together, I spent most of yesterday, last night and this morning transcribing everything into a set of word docs. I've stripped out the names of the cops and others involved, they don't need to be dragged into this. It's my decision to give this too you, not theirs, so please keep their names out of it" The all nodded slowly before Ulrich spoke.

"Will you go on the record?" I shook my head.

"Nope" At his narrowed eyes I hastily explained. "If you looked me up you know who my partner is" He nodded once as did Andrea. "I'd rather not destroy her career along with mine. If it was just me, maybe, but not her too" I nodded at Andrea. "That's why I asked you all here, so Andrea and her partner aren't targeted either. This way it's a multimedia story with no one organisation they can go after"

"Who can go after us detective?" It was Church.

"The people who could afford Lysenko's services are extremely wealthy and therefore very powerful individuals. They were capable of paying thousands at a time to satisfy their perversions; some of these kids were seeing five or six of these rich, powerful customers a week at thousands of dollars a time" I frowned. "Syme was a perfect example, came from a wealthy family then married into more money which in turn allowed him to use that money and the connections that come with it to get into a position as an elected councillor. God knows what positions the rest of the customers were, but you can bet that when news gets round you're investigating, those people, powerful people, are going to try and shut you down" I shook my head and then continued.

"Someone was powerful enough to get in and make the evidence files in the 12th vanish, the department's internal affairs people can't be bothered looking into that, same as the NYPD's let the broader investigation die out" I glanced around the table. "That says power to me" I shrugged. "Doesn't your industry claim to speak truth to power? Well here's your chance" Ulrich nodded then spoke.

"Do we know who the customers were?" I shook my head once as I replied.

"No, we tried but all the money was routed through private international bank accounts to a bank in the Caymans who in turn washed it through companies and banks in the Jersey Islands, Mauritius, Fiji, places like that and then into accounts in Switzerland where it was then fed back into other companies in the Cayman's" I saw their frowns and shrugged. "I'm just a New York cop, chasing down international finance is way outside my area" Church nodded and spoke.

"Unfortunate, but the story's still a good one"

"This way you know where to dig, but it will look like your own investigation, not like you know everything from day one" I sighed then continued. "If it was just me I'd do it, but there are other people who need to be protected" I saw them exchange looks before they looked back at me and nodded. Andrea was the first to speak.

"I understand" Ulrich looked at me over the rim of his coffee, sizing me up then spoke.

"I hope you're right about this detective" I nodded.

"Oh I am, trust me, I had enough attempts on my life during this case to know I am" Church tilted her head to regard me, her voice quiet.

"We are" I looked back at her, meeting her gaze with one of my own.

"A good friend of mine, Natalie Dearing, someone I trust, told me that I could count on you, that you're a good investigative reporter" She looked at me as I continued. "I trust Nat, this is your chance to live up to her recommendation" I stared back at her until she looked away then spoke. "How long do you think it'll take to get things rolling?' Ulrich shrugged.

"I'll start digging. Shouldn't take long to work out if there's something there" Andrea glanced at the other two journalists then spoke quietly.

"The louder the denials the more likely there is something there" I nodded and related what I thought was going to happen.

"Then get ready for some loud squeals because what you have there is going to expose the perversions of some people, powerful people" Ulrich shrugged as he spoke.

"Won't be the first time" Church shrugged too.

"Nope" Ulrich looked at the other two, exchanging some sort of conversation before looking back at me.

"Detective, we have a pile of work to do, thank you for bringing this to us" Andrea nodded and smiled sympathetically at me as she spoke.

"We'll do what we can to keep you all out of this Liv, but there are no guarantees" I nodded, I kinda figured that but I had hope.

"I understand" They all took their leave as I was left there. I thought about what I'd done, tossing up right and wrong before mentally shrugging, ' _what's done is done_ '.

Now though the die's been cast; all I could do now was wait to see how they landed.


	56. Chapter 56

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 58**

 **Elsewhere**

The office of the NYPD Commissioner was a nice one, far too nice for the current incumbent, Deputy Commissioner David Thomas thought bitterly, it wasn't a new thought by any stretch of the imagination, he'd long despised the current occupant of that role. Frank Reagan had worked his way up into the Commissioner's office after a long career in uniform, unfortunately in Thomas' opinion he was not fit for the office he occupied.

The man came from an unremarkable middle class family, both his father and grandfather had been NYPD officers and it had been obvious their son would follow in their footsteps. Unfortunately he was far too concerned with the rank and file officers and their cases, not using the power of the office for the things that really mattered.

Thomas knew he would be a better man for the job, he was a member of the city's upper echelon, the sort of people who held the real power in New York; he would have this office and the power it wielded in his hands, the sooner the better. Once he did then the power here could be turned to deal with the real issues that mattered as Thomas moulded it to better reflect his world view and those of his peers and associates.

Unfortunately that was still in the future and Tomas was forced to repeatedly kow-tow to someone he considered both a social and intellectual inferior, something that rankled badly, even if Reagan made a good fist of working amiably with him. Like today, over the last hour they'd worked their way through a list of agenda items and had ended up talking through other matters.

"I hear the media is making enquiries about that Russian paedophile case" Thomas looked up at Reagan's words.

"Really?" He carefully shrugged, though he felt a cold shiver down his spine.

"Yes," Reagan sat back and regarded him across the low table, scattered with papers and coffee cups. "They're asking about why the case has stalled, about the investigation into his clients and the shootout at that power plant" Thomas chose his words carefully.

"As I recall from the incident reports and the shooting team evaluations, the person running that ring was killed during a police operation and as he'd poisoned everyone he'd worked with, the case ran into a dead end" Reagan watched him for a moment then nodded.

"I understand from talking to Cutter at the DA's office that the investigation didn't have a lead on the clients, without that there was nothing to proceed to a case with" Thomas nodded once and proffered a careful opinion.

"That would make sense; there was no one alive to prosecute and no leads to follow" He sipped his mostly cold coffee to buy some time then asked a nonchalant question. "Who is asking?"

"Apparently Ben Ulrich from the Bulletin" Thinking carefully but quickly Thomas decided to deflect Reagan into an area that might work to his advantage.

"Given what he's asking I suspect that one of the officers on the case may have been leaking to the media" Reagan's interest sharpened.

"Any idea who?"

"An officer assigned from SVU to the case, a Sergeant Benson" He schooled his face to look concerned. "She has a long history of issues and has apparently been on IA's radar for a while. She's just the sort to have leaked the case to the media if she wasn't happy with the decision to wind it up" Reagan frowned as he thought it over, encouraging Thomas to make a suggestion. "I can have IA get Benson in and dig into her actions" Reagan's frown darkened as he listened then he shook his head as he replied.

"They're significant accusations David, do you have any proof?" Thomas shook his head.

"No, but I would suggest that getting IA to look into her would be prudent, see if she gives anything up under interrogation" Reagan's face hardened.

"No, not without proof; I don't want IA stomping all over an officer without evidence" He paused for a moment as he obviously thought of something. "As I recall wasn't she the officer that an IA investigator overstepped the bounds with over in the 12th Precinct recently?" Thomas inwardly cursed Reagan's memory but nodded once.

"Apparently she has come up on Internal Affair's radar repeatedly and the investigator in question was overzealous" Reagan snorted softly.

"Overzealous? Apparently that's a real understatement; from what Vikki Gates told me, it was more like an abuse of powers" With effort Thomas held a snarl inside. Gates would get her comeuppance soon enough, until then however he was forced to play second fiddle to this buffoon.

"The officer in question has been counselled about his behaviour and that won't happen again" Reagan nodded.

"Good, IA has a bad enough reputation without individual investigators going off the reservation" He paused for a moment then continued. "Unless some evidence turns up pointing towards Benson, have IA leave her alone" Thomas nodded, once, concealing his anger and frustration as Reagan changed the subject.

"What's your thought on the settlement that the Charleston family's lawyers have proposed?" Their conversation turned to other matters.

Walking back into his office at 1PP, Thomas slumped down into his chair, sighed for a moment, thinking dark thoughts then thumbed the intercom to his Executive Assistant.

"Marcy, send Paul in please"

" _Right away sir_ " Shortly thereafter his chief of staff walked in and took a seat, raising an eyebrow at his boss. Thomas grimaced and spoke.

"We have a problem" She shook his head. ""The media's sniffing round the Syme case" Donner leaned forward and asked the question.

"How much do they know?" Thomas chewed his lip for a moment then replied.

"Enough to ask the right questions about the right things" Donner nodded slowly then spoke.

"Who's doing the asking?"

"Ben Ulrich from the Bulletin" Donner's expression showed immediate worry, something his voice conveyed.

"That's…not good, he has a rep for digging up stuff that should stay buried" Thomas nodded.

"I've just come from Reagan's office" Donner nodded, he knew that. "I tried to get Reagan to shut the enquiry down but he wasn't interested"

"Damn" Thomas nodded once, still angry at Reagan's refusal to take simple, good advice.

"I suggested it was Benson leaking to the media; Tucker did say she was a loose cannon so I suggested maybe getting her in and sweating her in interrogation but Reagan vetoed that until we get evidence" Donner was quiet for a while thinking it over before looking up at Thomas.

"What do we do about Benson?" Thomas thought that over for a minute then pulled out his cell, opening the directory and placing a call.

" _Tucker, NYPD_ "

"Tucker, Commissioner Thomas here, I have a question" He hit speaker and held the phone away from his ear, speaking up a little. "The media's looking into the paedophile case; apparently someone's leaked to them" Tuckers voice came from the phone, a little tinny from the speaker.

" _That'll be Benson, I guarantee it_ "

"Explain your reasoning then"

" _Benson's a hot head, if she's not happy with something, she'll keep sticking her nose deeper into it. With the case dead, ratting out to the media's exactly the sort of thing the bitch would do_ " Thomas looked to Donner who was nodding slowly as Tucker continued. " _You want me to have another talk to her?_ " Unconsciously Thomas shook his head as he replied.

"No, Reagan's still pissed with you for your little stunt back in the 12th, better you stay low profile. Instead look into the other cops on the task force and see if any of them may have been the leaker" He paused then continued. "They've all returned to their normal roles haven't they?"

" _Yeah, I can look into them, well not the Bureau woman but the others, but I'm certain Benson was the leak, it's exactly the thing that bitch would do_ " Thomas frowned.

"Stay away from Benson Tucker; I don't need the grief from Reagan. Look into the others; I'll take care of Benson"

" _Okay I guess_ " With that Thomas ended the call and looked to Donner who spoke.

"Tucker's useful but he certainly has a big blind spot when it comes to Benson" Thomas nodded.

"Leave Benson to me" Donner frowned.

"Are you sure you should get involved?" Thomas nodded.

"The bitch has caused me no end of problems, she won't listen to IA, especially not Tucker, so I'll handle her personally" Donner's frown deepened, he could see this going all sorts of wrong but Thomas had the bit between his teeth now and was quite obviously not going listen to reason.

"Well, if you're sure…"

"Oh yes, Benson needs to be reminded of exactly where she sits on the pecking order, something I'm going to enjoy"


	57. Chapter 57

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 57**

 **Andrea**

One week later and we'd gotten together for the first time since Liv Benson had dropped her bombshell on us; sure we'd kept in contact via WhatsApp's encrypted messaging, a journalist's best friend, but there was nothing like a face-to-face to cover a lot of issues in a short time. I was the first to speak after the coffee's had arrived.

"If this isn't the biggest story of our careers, it's up there" Stephanie Church nodded once.

"Hell yeah, this is Pulitzer-worthy stuff here" A Pulitzer was old news to Ulrich, he already had one, instead he focused us on what we had now.

"What'd you get?" Getting a nod from Stephanie, I leaned forward and kicked us off, my part was the victims.

"I started with the hospitals; the first was Presbyterians Kids Hospital. Everyone there knew the case and they're still talking about it, it went down just as Liv said, all those children died there, plus I followed up on a bunch of adults who died in similar circumstances at two other hospitals" I shook my head at what I'd learned, even at second hand it had been horrible. I pulled it back together and looked round at them both. "The kids were all Russians, so were a good chunk of the adults" They nodded as I continued. "I have three nurses and two doctors willing to go on the record about what they saw, all of them worked on the kids, all are pretty angry" I flipped through my notes. "I did some checking on kids and adults who died under those circumstances, running down the exact number of poison victims. The numbers are pretty horrible actually" I shook my head at that horrible memory before pressing on.

"In total, twenty kids died" I saw that hit home with Stephanie though Ulrich was all business as I pressed on. "Two died up at Washington DC, back before the NYPD investigation got started" Ulrich broke in.

"DC, how did they end up there?" I had the answer for that.

"That was during that bad snow dump last winter, the day all airports got closed?" They both nodded. "All flights were being diverted and that flight got shuffled to DC, the kids were held there as they weren't being officially accompanied by anyone and without the poison suppressant they…died" I grimaced then pushed on. "Both guys died in Washington, got found in hotel rooms, it was only the autopsy's afterwards that worked out what killed them" Stephanie nodded.

"And that alerted the Bureau" I nodded.

Fourteen kids were part of the operation here, they all died either because of the poison or in two cases they died when the police raided one of the buildings the operation as using as a safe house" Ulrich's ears popped up at that.

"Killed in the crossfire?" I shook my head once definitively.

"Apparently one of the thugs guarding them shot them then was killed by the cops" Church frowned.

"Why shoot the kids, they were going to die…" Ulrich answered that one.

"They didn't know the kids, and by extension himself, had been poisoned" There was silence for a second as Church thought it through then nodded as I took up the story again.

"The last four kids were brought in late in the story, after the NYPD had started tearing the Russian's organisation apart, they were intercepted by the Feds as they arrived, but they'd already been dosed so…" Church shook her head.

"Twenty kids, Jesus Christ" I nodded.

"I don't have a total on the number of adults that got killed as part of this whole mess but a ball park figure has to be over 30 easy, there were the 20 odd people in the power plant, Syme, all the ones who worked for him here in New York, the four guys accompanying the diverted kids and then there's the guy they sent after Olivia Benson…" I trailed off as they nodded.

"That's serial killer numbers" it was Church, Ulrich nodded in agreement and turned to the next part.

"What about that city councillor who died, Syme? Is his widow willing to talk on the record?" I shook my head, easily remembering the emphatic response I'd got.

"Not a chance. The wife, well ex-wife now, made it clear that her kids were off-limits, she told me she'd sue our ass off for harassment and libel if we kept after them" I shrugged. "I can't blame her. One thing she did say though was that she wanted nothing to do with either her ex or his name, which suggests she was likely to change her and the kid's names to distance them from him and this entire…mess" Ben nodded.

"We might work that into our story…" He pulled a face. "…maybe not" I shrugged and tried to appear not too pushy, but still…

"I don't think her kids are the story, not really" I noticed Stephanie nodding slowly as Ben looked at us both before he too nodded, then turned to look at Stephanie, she'd been tasked with the on-line element.

"What did you find out?" Stephanie looked up from her laptop and spoke.

"I hit up a hacker guy I've used from time to time, he's very, very good at what he does" She shook her head. "Oh my God... He cracked the cache on that deep web site we were told about, it's worse than you could imagine. Some of the things there, pricing, customer reviews and the descriptions of what the kids would do..." She looked from me to Ben and back again. "It was horrible, I mean really horrible" She shook her head again as if trying to remove the images there before she continued. "I didn't understand why Benson was so willing to risk her career, pension, everything; but now I've seen that site I can totally understand why"

As we watched she reached into her laptop bag and drew out a sheaf of colour printouts and dropped them on the table where they spilled across the surface. Each was a photo of a child and accompanying text. Both Ben and I picked up a few pages and leafed through them, I saw his face paling at what he read as I tried to keep my breakfast down, my gorge rising at what I was seeing; ' _oh my god_ '. Finally we both looked up to see Stephanie nodding at us, her face tightly composed.

"Exactly" Ben shook his head as he dropped the photos on the desk and spoke quietly.

"Almost a shame Benson blew that Russian bastard's head off" Putting the pages back on the table top I looked up at his words, _Liv did what…?_

"Say what?" Ulrich glanced my way and waved at his notebook lying on the table, he'd been tasked with digging into the police investigation. We'd decided to play it straight and hadn't approached any of the cops actually involved in the investigation, instead going through the usual channels to talk to the NYPD.

"No one in the NYPD is prepared to speak officially about the case. I approached both the public affairs branch and the Commissioner's office and got nowhere" We exchanged a look; normally the NYPD's media people were pretty reasonable to deal with, for them to be no help… Ben was still going. Obviously there's pressure coming from above to shut down comment but unofficially there are plenty of people talking about it" He shook his head for a moment before pressing on.

"One of my contacts in the NYPD confirmed a lot of what happened, particularly towards the end, that shoot out at the power station rattled a lot of people; mercenaries armed with military-grade weapons shooting it out with the cops and the Bureau, that was serious stuff, something straight out of a Tom Clancy novel. If they weren't all dead thanks to that poison, all the merc's would have been looking at life plus" He sipped his coffee then continued.

"The Russian guy behind it all was a real piece of work, poisoned everyone he came into contact with" He glanced my way. "Based on what you've just told us, his total body count was up there with the worst serial killers so he'd be looking at mass murder charges if Benson hadn't got him in that raid on the power plant"

We exchanged glances as Stephanie asked Ben the question I couldn't quite bring myself to.

"So Olivia Benson killed him?" He nodded in reply then expanded on what he knew.

"Apparently, he was holding one of the kids hostage, a gun to her head, he'd already shot one of the cops and was about to shoot either Benson or the other cop so she took the shot. It was a clean hit but he died. Unfortunately that meant that they couldn't find the poison antidote, it apparently died with him so everyone that son of a bitch had poisoned died too" Stephanie shook her head sadly as I imagined how this must have hit Olivia; she would have been devastated. Stephanie finally spoke quietly.

"God, this is so messed up" There were nods around the table before I spoke.

"So we're agreed, we have a story here?" Ben nodded as Stephanie spoke what we were all thinking.

"Oh hell yeah" She looked down at her tablet, then back up. "So where to now?" Ben shrugged.

"We keep on looking for more corroborating evidence" Stephanie nodded.

"I have our Moscow bureau digging at that end, seeing if they can track down a family member of one of the kids" They nodded before I tapped my notes.

"I'll finish up the interviews with the medical staff, plus I have a contact with the TSA, maybe I can connect the dots on the kids coming into the country" Ben frowned.

"Benson came to us looking to get the investigation reopened" He made a hand wave gesture. "Be that as it may, I think we're likely to get a reaction once the story goes live" Church nodded.

"Oh yeah, and I have just the thing to make a real splash" We both looked her way, seeing the smile. Well she was television and they did like to play it up for the cameras; I played my part and asked the obvious question.

"What have you got?" Her smile widened.

"Possibly a way to find the clients" Ben and I exchanged a glance and he spoke for us both.

"That would sure help sell the story, mind explaining how you got it when the cops couldn't?" Stephanie tapped some of the photos on the table.

"I can help you there. That hacker friend of mine, he was seriously pissed at what he found. I mean really, seriously, pissed off" She shook her head once then tapped the papers on the table. "You've seen why, but there are also some unbelievably terrible videos of the kids on that site, I mean totally horrific stuff, so he contacted a couple of apparently well-known black-hat hackers, these guys are supposedly legends in the hacker world, they heard him out, looked at what he had, went to the site and saw the videos and then got busy, they ripped through the security on that site and did a whole pile of hacker shit that I can only barely comprehend, let alone understand, but the upshot is they apparently retrieved the IP and email addresses of all the customers on this Lysenko guy's email list and passed them back to my guy. He in turn passed each of them out to each of his other hacker friends, one apiece and told them enough to get them all pissed too and now they're tracking down each IP address personally"

I looked up at her words, I knew a little about internet security, not a whole lot but enough.

"Wouldn't they be using VPNs and the like to disguise where they were accessing the site from?" Stephanie looked over at me and nodded as she replied.

"I thought that too, but some of these hackers were involved in setting up these VPN suppliers in the first place; I was told that VPN or no, they will track them down" She paused to take a sip from a glass of water then continued. "Once they've located the IP address and work out who owns it beyond a shadow of a doubt, they'll pass it back to him and he'll pass it to us, with all the info to prove who accessed that site. A complete trail from the site to the client's computer, tight enough that no one will be able to deny it" Ben broke in.

"We need to find a confirmed link to the clients that will withstand categorical denials and the lawsuits that'll be threatened, without it the story won't sell to our lawyers" Stephanie shrugged.

"While it won't stand up in a court of law for a conviction, given how it was obtained, it'll be proof enough to beat a defamation suit" Ben nodded, convictions weren't his job, getting the story out while avoiding lawsuits was, then slowly spoke.

"One thing we should look at" We both looked his way as he continued. "That poison, the KGB toxin thing that apparently killed everyone, we need some background on that, someone prepared to go on the record about it, maybe someone at the Bureau or the Agency" I shook my head, that was way out of my comfort zone.

"I don't have an Agency contact" Stephanie shook hers as well.

"Me neither, though I do have a contact at the Bureau, I'll hit them up" Ben nodded.

"I'll contact the Agency then, see if they have someone who'll speak" He shook his head. "That poison's what makes this stand out from all the other similar cases, it adds a whole new dimension and it'll help sell the story to our editors"

He got nods from us both, not that a case like this wasn't going to get our editor's and news bosses' attentions, but something different always helped.


	58. Chapter 58

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 58**

 **Olivia**

I was standing in the kitchen, making a coffee when the internal phone rang; it was Charles down on the door, apparently I had a visitor on the way up, a rude man in a suit who'd flashed a badge and forced his way in. Given everything that had happened earlier Charlie wanted to know if he should call the local precinct but I assured him I was okay with it.

I sighed; I'd been expecting something like this for a while, still after everything that had happened it didn't hurt to take some precautions so I walked over and retrieved my Glock from the thumbprint ID gun safe, sliding it into the back of my jean's waistband and flipping my jersey over the top of it before retrieving my coffee.

There was a peremptory knock at my door followed by another even as I made my way into the foyer. I flicked a glance at the newly installed monitor relaying the view from the camera covering the door that Alex had insisted we have installed, seeing a single, well dressed, heavily-built man standing there; I felt an unpleasant sensation as I recognised Deputy Commissioner David Thomas. Thomas was the NYPD Commissioner responsible for Internal Affairs, nothing good was going to come out of this I could just tell.

Thomas was supposed to be both politically connected and very ambitious, apparently he thought he'd be a better man than Reagan as the Commissioner, something no one in the force would agree with. Sure, we had our beefs with Reagan from time to time but he was a cop, someone who'd worked his way up from pounding a beat in a uniform, one of us. By contrast Thomas was a politician and no one trusted them an inch.

As he went to knock again I unlocked the new heavy-duty steel-reinforced door, something else Alex had insisted on, and opened it, standing in the doorway and looking at him.

"Yes?" He took in my jeans, tee and loose Mets jersey as I stood there, barefoot.

"Detective Benson" I noticed he dropped the Sergeant title, two could okay this game. I nodded as I replied politely.

"Mr Thomas" He frowned at my lack of title then spoke.

"I have a message for you" At my calm gaze he frowned. "In private, not in the corridor" I shrugged and stood back, letting him in and closing the door, following Thomas into the living area. He looked round and took in the furnishings, the view over the Park and the magnificent New York skyline and turned to me.

"How the hell can you afford a place like this?" I shrugged again.

"You said you had a message?" He scowled at my casually dismissive tone.

"You are not to speak to anyone in the media, under any circumstances. You will not contact them and if they contact you say nothing and report the name of whoever contacted you to my office" I looked at him for a long moment, a little surprised he was handling it.

"Not the NYPD Public Affairs office?" He shook his head once dismissively.

"No, my office" Surprised and a little suspicious but not showing it I answered as simply as I could.

"Okay" His eyes narrowed as he spoke, his tone suspicious and threatening all at once.

"I trust you will follow my orders detective, the consequences if you don't will be...severe" I looked at him and replied flatly.

"You turned up here, while I'm on leave to give me an order and I've acknowledged it. What more do you want?" He looked me up and down and sneered.

"You've got an attitude problem Benson" I rolled my eyes at his stupidity.

"And so do you, and its Sergeant Benson. I earned my badge; I'm not a civilian administrator like you so I'd appreciate it if you use my rank when talking to me on official NYPD business" He scowled at me, his eyes looking me up and down before speaking.

"I pulled your file, everything in it says you're a trouble maker, a string of investigations, psych reviews, you're a liability to the force Benson, one we'd be better off without" I frowned, it looked like he wanted a fight; if so I was happy to oblige.

"Obviously you didn't bother to read the file, if you had you'd have found I was cleared in every single one of those shooting team investigations, as for the psyche evaluations, most were mandated post-traumatic incident reviews and they were all passed" I stared at him. "If you're going to make threats make them openly, then get out" He glared at me for a few seconds then spoke, grinding out the words.

"You're more trouble than you're worth. I'm pretty sure you leaked to those reporters, I can't prove it yet, if I could I'd have you arrested right here, but I will, and I'll have you do time for that" I shook my head, was he really this dumb?

"You really should learn to read; the departmental regs state that unauthorised media contact by a NYPD officer is a disciplinary offence carrying a maximum penalty of dismissal, not a jail term. If you're here to threaten me, at least make it a believable one" His face darkened as he heard me, he was angry and it showed. I doubt many people dared call him on his B.S.

"You've got a smart mouth Benson" I pulled a face and stood there even as he looked around the apartment again. "A cop living in a place like this, lots of people would look at that and wonder how you can afford it, if you were on the take, I'm sure IA would be interested" I shook my head at his rank stupidity.

"You really want to go down that path? You can't be so dumb that you don't know who my partner is, this is her place; she owns it, not me" He peered at me from under bushy brows.

"I'm well aware you're Cabot's tame cop, everyone now knows you two dykes are involved" He sneered at me. "I can't stop who you're fucking, but you'll never work at SVU again. Conflict of interest means you can't work together, so until further notice you're shuffling papers in administration" I stiffened despite my best efforts not to let it show. Alex and I had made it a policy not to work the same cases; Casey Novak handled the ones I worked on precisely to deny any hint of impropriety. Thomas saw it and his sneer deepened. "Let's see how they like that shitty attitude of yours in admin. Maybe a few years of processing overtime forms might teach you some manners" I looked at him then asked a question that had been hammering away at me since I saw him at my door.

"What's your beef with me? To the best of my knowledge we've never met, our careers have never crossed paths, so why are you so hot to take me down?" He shook his head and spoke.

"Gavin Syme was a friend of mine and you're dragging his name through the mud. Thanks to you leaking to the press his name's now out there being picked over by the media who will destroy his good name and works" I slowly nodded as a mental 'ah ha' light suddenly went on, now I understood why he was here in person rather than sending an underling.

"I get it, Syme was one of your political allies so when the public learns that he was doing underage girls and that he paid a Russian pimp to dress them up like hookers for him, it'll destroy whatever's left of his credibility and by association yours too" He waved his hand in front of him as if he was trying to bat my statement away.

"My association has nothing to do with it, I'm concerned by the effect this will have on his wife and children" I snorted, yeah right…

"You forget we've spoken to Mrs Syme, I was part of the team that had to explain what he'd done and suggest that she get her own kids checked out. The only thing on her mind was getting her kids examined and then getting a divorce as quickly as possible" I shrugged, remembering what Kate had relayed. "I understand the divorce papers aren't necessary anymore but she's changing her and the kid's names back to her family name, something about not wanting any association whatsoever with a dead paedophile, so forgive me if I find your excuses a bit weak" Thomas tried to pretend to innocence, fat chance of that though.

"I don't know what you're talking about Benson" I shrugged.

"I do know Syme was one of your supporters…" Something a Google search turned up pretty quickly back when we'd first started looking into Syme when his name cropped up. "So I bet your political ambitions are going to go down in flames when it gets out one of your key backers was a paedophile" I smiled nastily, baiting him. "I doubt that will look all that particularly good in the media when you run for re-election in years to come"

He stared at me, given his position I guess not too many dared people call him out on his crap then he took a step closer, as I rested my hand on the grip of my Glock behind my back as he spoke, low and threatening.

"I will have your badge, you will be run out of the force in disgrace and until that day, I will make sure your life in the NYPD is a living hell" He sneered at me as he took yet another step closer, his hand coming up to jab a finger towards me as he spoke. "And on the day your ass is fired, I will sign the dishonourable discharge forms personally, then walk down to whatever hell hole you're rotting in and kick your miserable dyke ass out onto the street with pleasure" He was standing in my personal space waving his finger I my face and I didn't like it, even as he continue raving threats. "And I'll do whatever I can to see your dyke lawyer gets disbarred and disgraced too, you can both spend your lives together rooting round in garbage cans for your next meal, and I'll take great pleasure in watching you suffer" His expression was ugly and I could smell his tobacco-laden breath, he was that close.

"Mister Thomas, take two steps back right now" He glared back at me as he spoke, challenge in his voice.

"Or what" I smiled without humour even as I brought my Glock out and held it aimed at his belly.

"Or I might feel concerned for my safety, in my own home, and take all appropriate measures to protect myself" For emphasis I pushed the barrel of my pistol into his gut, seeing his eyes widen as he realised what it was. He frantically backpedalled until he was a good five feet away, staring at the Glock before I slid it in behind my back again.

"Jesus Christ!" I shrugged.

"You forget that I was attacked, right here in this apartment, by a hired assassin posing as a police officer, if I hadn't stopped him he would have killed me then killed my partner" I smiled, a little lopsidedly. "I think I'm more than justified in feeling unsafe in my apartment when confronted by someone threatening me and her, don't you think"

"You're a psycho case Benson, you'll never work a case again ever" He stared at me with both fear and hatred as he raved on, spewing threats. "I'll have your badge, your job and by the time I'm finished you'll be begging in the street, unemployable" I shook my head at him, even as I felt a chill pass through me.

"You've delivered your message, you know where the door is, now get out."

He left, the shakes didn't start until the door clicked shut as I took a couple of steps and collapsed onto the sofa, wondering how the hell everything had gone to hell so quickly.


	59. Chapter 59

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 59**

 **Alex**

I was sitting in my office reading the huge headlines splashed across the Mirror and Bulletin's front pages.

' **Children die in sex ring scandal** ' was the Mirror's lead while the Bulletin ran with ' **New York's high society paedophile ring** '

Andrea had rung last night to give us a heads up that the papers would be leading with the story on the front page while Stephanie Church would be on her network's morning news show stoking the fire, which is why I had WPIX on the TV in the corner of my office with the volume down.

I read over both headlines quickly then started on the stories, the Bulletin first, they had their basic facts right but enough was missing from the story to hide the source, nothing there directly pointed back to Liv and the others on the investigation team.

Three paragraphs down my eyes widened as they started listing Lysenko's customers, the names there were shocking beyond anything I'd ever possibly imagined.

"Oh my god, I know him, him too, and them…" I was so surprised I'd spoken aloud in the quiet of my office.

I slumped back in my chair shocked, before thinking it through; if they were confident enough to name names they must have had enough evidence to stand up to the inevitable defamation suits that were sure to follow. I went back to reading the articles and was flipping through to the inner pages for the story when my door swung open; the lack of a knock telling me exactly who it was. Cutter had a copy of the Mirror under his arm.

"How the hell did this leak?" I frowned at his tone, was he suggesting I'd been the one to leak…? Figuring that the best defence was a good offence I stopped myself from snarling back at him and kept my voice as calm as possible.

"Exactly how would I know?" I crossed my arms and sat back. "Are you accusing me of talking to the media?" His mouth turned down at the corners as he spoke.

"No, not you, but the evidence points to Benson and the other investigating cops" I shook my head, happy to put that particular line of thought to the sword, though I knew better, Liv had confessed to me the night she'd spoken to the media though I would have had a suspicion even if she hadn't, given Andrea's involvement in the investigation.

"Not hardly; they didn't have a line on any of the clients, besides Syme that is, certainly none of these names" I waved at the paper open in front of me. "That's information no one in the NYPD had any inkling of, if they had you can bet charges would have followed" I shrugged as I let loose a scowl of my own. "Well they would have if IA hadn't made the evidence disappear" Cutter shook his head.

"There's no concrete evidence of that" I just levelled him with a sceptical look over the top of my glasses as; he stood silent there for a few seconds before continuing. "Well not that anyone can prove anyhow" I nodded.

"Exactly, someone made that evidence vanish, someone powerful, now we find out, from the media of all people, that Lysenko's client list is full of New York's movers and shakers" I looked down and read out a couple of the names.

"Carlton Chester, on the board of the Manhattan Ballet, Howard Zimmer, senior partner at Landman and Zack, Peter and Elaine Oakley, part owners of the Atlantic Pacific Securities hedge fund, Thomas Kinkaid, he sits on First Long Island Trust's board, the avant-garde artist Nicolai Costa, there's plenty more here, all wealthy, powerful and politically connected people" I shook my head. "Syme fitted right in with that crowd; hell some of them were his political supporters and allies so it fits" I looked up at him and grimaced. "We would have gone through hell dragging these people in front of a judge" I glanced down and snorted. "Hell one of them is a judge"

"A retired judge" he said, as if that made a difference. "Be that as it may, the media can print what they like, we need proof before we can act" I nodded, granting him that one.

"Exactly, we didn't have a client list, we had no idea that these people were in any way involved" I waved at the paper. "Can you imagine the heat if we'd tried to prosecute these people?" I glanced up at him and shook my head. "If we'd had enough to even look to prosecute you can bet the pressure would have been enormous" I gave a one shoulder shrug. "We might not have got to tie these people to Lysenko but the media obviously has" Cutter diverted off script at that comment.

"You sound like you admire these journalists" I nodded once, why deny it?

"In a way I do, they tracked down the people that were using Lysenko's services, something that the investigating task force weren't able to do" I waved at the page open in front of me, with a sidebar of headshots of some of the more prominent clients. "This way, even if we weren't ever able to prosecute, these people will be tried in the court of public opinion and if the paper's evidence linking them to Lysenko stands up to scrutiny…" I shrugged. "Given their lawyers signed off on publication, they must be pretty certain the evidence can withstand any defamation suit" Cutter wasn't listening, instead coming back to his original topic.

"I'd like to know how they found these so-called clients when the cops couldn't" I sat back and looked up at him, Cutter at times looked down on the cops, didn't think they were as smart as him, something that rankled with me, I knew better. I decided that he needed reminding about a few salient facts.

"The cops have to follow the law, establish chains of evidence, be able to ensure their methods stand up in court to scrutiny from both the judge and the defence, the media on the other hand have ways that obviously aren't so hamstrung" Cutter shook his head.

"So there's no way this will go to trial?" I shook my head decisively, god knows I'd thought about it often enough.

"No, the evidence theft broke the chain of custody; even if they found it we couldn't prosecute anyone with that evidence" Cutter nodded.

"That's what I thought" He shook his head. "A shame"

I looked up at him but kept my mouth shut; I had the gravest doubts about Michael Cutter's backbone when it came to resisting the sort of powerful political pressures trying to prosecute anyone on this list would have brought to bear on him. He was a good prosecutor when it was a normal case, though he rarely deigned to handle anything messy like SVU's cases, preferring to handle cases that delivered nice clean convictions that looked good on his record and in the media, but something like this? I was pretty sure he'd turn to water. Cutter looked down at the papers across my desk.

"I suppose Reagan will be busy this morning explaining why the media could find these alleged clients when the NYPD couldn't" I nodded agreeably.

"I have no doubt the Commissioner's office will try and get ahead of the story, maybe he'll do a press conference to explain why we couldn't prosecute but honestly, it doesn't matter" I tapped the paper in front of me. "These people have already been found guilty, they won't see the inside of a court but they'll carry the verdict of paedophile with them for the rest of their lives" Cutter shook his head.

"That's not their right, the media doesn't get to be judge, jury and executioner of these people's character" I smiled a little at his words.

"Well normally that's our job isn't it?" He frowned at me, a touch of exasperation in his voice.

"You know what I mean" I nodded, granting him that as I replied.

"Normally yes, but these people were outside our reach, in this case the media's done our job for us" I eyed him off across the desk. "I'd really have preferred to try them for what they've done, but as that was never going to happen…well in this case it looks like the media's delivered a measure of justice in our stead" He shook his head angrily.

"This isn't justice, it's a form of vigilante-ism, no checks and balances; they get to decide who's guilty" I nodded.

"True, but in this case it seems they've done our job when we couldn't" He scowled.

"I don't like it" He stared down at me. "You're sure the cops didn't leak this?" I sighed, a little too audibly.

"As I said they had no clue who the clients were" I tapped the paper again. "Everything here is exactly what they could have found from their own investigations" I shook my head at him. "Given that shoot out at the power plant, all those people dying, it's surprising that it hadn't broken sooner" I looked up at him. "If you want to blame someone for this, I suggest you blame the media, not the cops who managed to close the case" Cutter frowned at me.

"I don't like your tone Cabot" That did it; truly pissed off I slowly stood and leaned forward across my desk top, balanced on one hand, my voice cold.

"And I really don't like your assertions that my partner and one of my friends were the ones that leaked this, especially without a single shred of evidence" I brought my other hand up to point at him. "If you have any evidence to the contrary then table it, otherwise stop making baseless assertions against serving officers, something that wouldn't go down too well up in Reagan's office if he should somehow hear about them" Cutter's face went suddenly rigid; he'd realised I was both angry and serious.

"I wasn't making any assertions about…" I cut him off as I scoffed to his face.

"Oh please, you came in here, demanded to know how this leaked, as if I had some kind of special knowledge, then asked repeatedly if the investigating cops had leaked it" I shook my head. "If you have any evidence I'd be happy to see it, but until then stop spraying unsubstantiated allegations around" I stood up and crossed my arms. "Especially about my partner" Cutter stood there for a few seconds taking me in then changed the subject.

"We'll have to have a statement ready in case the media start asking why we didn't prosecute" I nodded, that was prudent. "Send me a list of all the warrants and other work we did for the case, we can at least show we were active in closing that Russian down, even if we didn't have anyone to prosecute" I nodded once more as I replied.

"I have that list, I'll email it to you" He sketched a barely-there nod and turned away, walking out and leaving me in peace as I shook my head in a combination of exasperation and disdain.

I sat back down and went back to reading the articles when the WPIX 'Morning New York' show came on, I immediately turned up the volume.

" _The breaking story this morning is sensational allegations of a paedophile prostitution ring running right here in New York, with some of the city's biggest movers and shakers as alleged customers. We're talking to WPIX investigative reporter Stephanie Church who has the low-down on the story_ " The two hosts turned on the lounge as the camera pulled back to show an attractive blonde I assumed to be Stephanie sitting on the other lounge. " _Morning Stephanie; thanks for dropping in to bring us, and all of New York, up to speed_ " Stephanie smiled, exposing some very expensive capping work, and replied.

" _Good morning Allie, Joe, it's good to be here_ " Allie took up the thread.

" _This story is absolutely everywhere this morning and the facts are horrible, can you tell us what your investigation has uncovered?_ " Stephanie nodded, all composed excitement.

" _Thanks Allie, what our investigation has revealed is that a paedophile ring supplying children to some of the New York's richest and most powerful people had been operating undiscovered for well over a year, supplying children as young as twelve to the ring's customers_ " Joe nodded gravely.

" _That's terrible, I mean truly shocking, can you walk the viewer's through what's been happening?_ "

" _The Russian running the ring, an ex-KGB officer named Lysenko, had created an organisation that purchased or in some cases kidnapped young children from impoverished families back in Russia, smuggled them into the States and then sold access to these children to a wide variety of customers, including some of the city's richest people_ " Allie nodded and leaned forward slightly, as if it was news to her, which it wasn't of course, they would have been fully briefed before they went on air.

" _Yes, the names on that list of customers are quite disturbing, how sure are you that these people were involved?_ " I smiled coldly to myself; positive enough that the network's lawyers had signed off on them being named, which in other words meant pretty damned near certain.

" _Well Allie, that's a good question, our investigation led us to a hidden web site located in the so-called deep web, not accessible via normal methods, where we were able, with the aid of a number of forensic computer specialists, to extract the details of the computers of each person who had logged into that site over the last six months. Those addresses were tracked back to the individual computer systems of the person's named in our investigation, right down to individual passwords, so yes, we're very certain_ " My cell's ringing interrupted me and, seeing it was Liv I muted the TV.

"Hi Liv" She was obviously in a better mood today, a welcome change after the last week and a half.

" _Hi Angel, are you seeing this?_ " Unconsciously I nodded.

"Yes, the client list, its stunning" I looked down at the papers on my desk again. "Liv, I know some of these people" Her voice was certain.

" _No you don't, you think you do then you find out something like this_ " I nodded, she was right.

"True. Are you pleased?" There was a pause for a few seconds, when she came back Liv's voice was quiet.

" _In one way yes, I would have loved to see every one of Lysenko's customers stand trial for multiple counts of statutory rape of minors plus whatever we could have added to the docket, but honestly, we didn't have any leads beyond Syme, so none of these people would have ever seen the inside of a court_ "

"In the court of public opinion though…"

" _Yeah, this is gonna follow them for the rest of their lives, every time someone Google's them this is going to pop up right at the top of the search results"_ She paused for a moment before continuing as I nodded to myself. _"It's not the law but it is justice so I suppose I should be happy with what we can get_ " I smiled.

"Agreed, under the circumstances it's the best we could have hoped for" Liv's voice was firm.

" _We may not have been able to do it, but perhaps now those kids can rest easy_ " I nodded as I replied.

"The people who raped those children are going to be pariahs, here in New York and amongst their society connections. I expect many of them will lose their positions over this" I paused then continued. "I know it's not the jail terms you would have wanted Liv, but it is a punishment of sorts" She was quiet for a moment before replying.

" _I suppose that's the best we could hope for, under the circumstances_ " I nodded unconsciously, seeing the news cycling through the faces of Lysenko's customer list, hammering further nails into the lives of the people named as I replied.

"In all probability yes it is" There was a long silence on the other end, though I could hear her breathing, before Liv came back to me, her voice was quiet.

" _Then that will have to do I suppose_ "


	60. Chapter 60

As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us. Thanks for letting us play with, if only for a while

 **Breaking Barriers Chapter 60**

 **Elsewhere**

The mood in the Deputy Commissioner's office could best be described as foul as Thomas watched the blonde reporter on the morning show; the damned woman kept talking, her words were devastating for Syme's reputation and he was collateral damage.

" _Yes Allie, based on what we've learned, former City Councillor Gavin Syme was one of the clients of this paedophile ring_ " She paused as the hosts nodded then continued. " _It appears that his actions partly led to the NYPD investigation that shut the ring down_ " Thomas felt his stomach churning as the conversation continued.

" _Tell us more Stephanie, how was Councillor Syme involved?_ "

"Well Joe, i _t appears that the victim, a 13 year old girl, had been paid for by Councillor Syme for a weekend spent with him, in a somewhat seedy downtown motel_ " The looks on both hosts' faces made it obvious what they thought of that as the reporter continued.

" _It seems that the Councillor was so involved in his sexual abuse of this poor young child that he decided to extend his actions beyond the period that he had originally booked the child for_ " The blonde reporter shrugged. " _No doubt he thought he'd just pay the pimp, the head of the paedophile ring, this Russian Lysenko, for the additional time. Unfortunately that time went longer than expected and the poor girl was denied the poison suppressant I mentioned, in fact she died on that last night while Councillor Syme slept next to where she'd been handcuffed to his bed_ "

" _That's terrible Stephanie_ " It was the other host, Allie, trying hard to stay professional though her expression showed what she really thought. " _How did this lead the police to him?_ " Stephanie grimaced before speaking.

" _The evidence suggests that when Councillor Syme discovered the young child's dead body he panicked and in attempting to hide the evidence, he threw the child's body out of the window of the room he was renting, trying to drop the body into a dumpster in the alley behind the hotel_ " Feeling sick, not at what was being said but by the personal implications Thomas spoke to the other person in the room.

"Shut it off" At his order Paul Donner hit the remote, killing the TV. Thomas sighed, he had his own opinion but he turned to his chief of staff and asked the question. "How bad is the damage?" Donner didn't pull any punches.

"Forget making a run on the Commissioner's job anytime this decade" Thomas couldn't hide the wince; _that long_ …

"You think so? I know it's bad but…" As he trailed off Donner shook his head.

"Syme was vocal in his support for you, anyone looking you up will find links to him and his endorsement of you as a better choice for Commissioner" Donner frowned. "Similarly, anyone looking him up will find the same links. Same goes for Zimmer too, he supported you as well, god help us" That had been a surprise, or perhaps not, maybe one had brought the other into their perverse little ring, who knew? Donner sat back. "In short you're stuck where you are, thank god you're not up for re-election anytime soon; you'd lose" Thomas scrubbed his face with his hand for a moment before replying.

"Jesus, the work of years ruined because that stupid prick couldn't stay discreet" Donner was philosophical.

"It is what it is; we need to get on the front foot about this" Thomas looked up

"How do you get out ahead of that?" He waved in the direction of the TV. Donner gestured with his hands as he spoke.

"Every media outlet not part of the original story's going to be beating down the doors at 1PP demanding to know about it, hell tonight's news will probably be reading the Bulletin and Mirror's copy straight off the page, interspersed with footage of Syme in particular, that's why this is so damaging. You've got to issue a statement condemning in the strongest possible terms Syme's actions, how he's brought disrepute on his office, basically throw him under the bus and distance yourself at the same time"

"Will it help?" Donner shrugged, he didn't bother sugar-coating it.

"A little, not much, but your denial needs to be public, otherwise you're associated with a kiddie fucker and we both know how well that'll go over with the good citizens of New York and their elected representatives" Thomas nodded, it wasn't much but they were in damage control mode here.

"Do it" He waved at the papers on the low table between them. "How the fuck did the story get out?"

"They have a lot of the story, no doubt about it, they interviewed lots of people about it and plenty were willing to talk, a hospital full of dead kids tends to do that" He shrugged. "They have some info the cops had, that bit about the handcuffs was in the file, but not released to the media. Some of it they didn't like the client list" Thomas nodded, distracted by that last.

"How in hell did they find them when our own investigation couldn't?" Donner shook his head as he replied.

"Don't know, but the media has its own ways and means, stuff that won't stand up in court but which sells papers" Donner settled back in the seat and continued on. "Tucker's certain it was Benson who leaked the story to the press" Thomas looked up as Donner shrugged and continued. "We both know he has issues with her but I did some digging and turned up some interesting information" He hefted his tablet and woke it up, then handed it across. "That was taken at the Mayor's Charity Ball earlier this year"

Thomas looked down, seeing Benson and a number of other women, all beautiful, standing together. Benson was wearing a tailored tuxedo and had a gorgeous blonde woman snuggled close. He glanced at Donner.

"So? Who are they?"

"Apparently a group of Benson's friends, the woman in the red dress with Benson is her girlfriend, Alex Cabot, she's the Assistant District Attorney working with the SVU unit Benson's assigned to" Thomas nodded and spoke, his voice distant.

"So that's what she looks like" His eyes narrowed and his tone sharpened. "I recently found out they worked together so there's a conflict of interest right there we can use against them" Donner shrugged.

"I'm informed they don't work on the same cases but as Commissioner for Internal Affairs you could definitely see it that way" He waved at the table. "Swipe to the next image" Thomas did so and his eyes narrowed at what, or rather who he saw.

"That's Miranda Priestly, the fashion publisher" Donner nodded.

"Yes, the younger woman is her girlfriend; she's a reporter with the Mirror. In fact she was the one who broke the story for them" Thomas nodded as Donner continued. "Go to the next image" He did so and his eyes widened at the sight of Benson and Cabot standing with Priestly and the younger woman, based on their clothes obviously taken at the same function.

"Shit, they know each other?"

"Friends apparently or so my contacts tell me; it seems Cabot and Priestly have been friends for a while and their partners know each other quite well. The other woman, the Mirror reporter, is Andrea Sachs" Thomas nodded slowly as he stared at the image.

"So they know each other, don't suppose we can prove that Benson leaked to the reporter?" Donner killed that hope.

"No, it's circumstantial at best, you could try and make a case but we don't have any evidence to make it stick"

"Not officially no, but we can make them hurt" He looked up. "I want all cooperation with all these reporters, the TV reporter, plus this woman and the one from the Bulletin, to stop. I want them cut off and left out in the cold" Donner frowned.

"That could cause some blow back" Thomas shrugged.

"Like I care, Reagan can deal with it, let them burn for that they've done" His eyes dropped to see Benson standing there, looking happy. ' _We'll see about that_ '. He looked up and continued.

"I want Benson nailed for this, I want her run out of the force, never to work as a cop again" Donner sat quietly, knowing his boss was in a rage and lashing out; not wanting to catch any of the fall out, he chose his words carefully.

"While we have no evidence we can use to force her out directly, we have other means at our disposal" Thomas stared at him for a moment then nodded.

"Such as?"

"Benson is on leave; I'm told she didn't handle the kids dying all that well. We can get her in and force her to take a psyche evaluation by one of our people, obviously I can guarantee she'll fail" He shrugged. "It won't be enough to have her fired, not immediately, but we can swing it to make sure that she is no longer able to work as a detective or on a front line role" He smiled coldly as his idea unfolded. "Instead we'll have her assigned to some menial task in administration, processing expense forms or pension statements or overtime forms or something equally mundane, enough of that will drive her crazy and eventually she'll stuff up and we'll have grounds to terminate her employment" Thomas nodded at the other man's stratagem.

"Nice, break her spirit and run her out, I like it" Donner shrugged modestly and continued.

"We make sure any job she goes for as a cop finds out she failed a psyche evaluation, after all no one wants to hire a burnt-out cop with a questionable record" Thomas nodded.

"Make it happen" He looked down at the tablet in his hand, seeing the happy, smiling blonde by Benson's side. "What can we do to Cabot? I want her to pay too" Donner grimaced.

"That's…not so easy" He shook his head. "Cabot's well thought of in 1PP by the DA and his office, her conviction record's second to none plus she's not just a nice ass in a suit" At Thomas' questioning look he continued. "That woman's the heir to the Cabot family fortune, she's already loaded and likely to inherit hundreds of millions more in the next few years when her old man dies" ' _She's a damn sight richer than you_ ' he carefully didn't say, instead he shrugged. "He's dying of cancer up on Long Island, got a year or two at most apparently"

"Damn" Thomas couldn't understand why a woman that looked like that and who was worth so much worked in the public system, she could be a top end lawyer earning real money as a partner with one of the city's well-connected law firms, instead of down in the filth prosecuting rapists and paedophiles.

"So we really can't go after her without stirring up a hornet's nest" Donner grimaced then dragged his boss back to reality. "Let's fight our fires one at a time"

"I don't like it but okay" He grimaced. "We'll concentrate on breaking Benson for now, we can go after Cabot later" Thomas looked down at the papers on the table in front of him. Fuck that useless son of a bitch Syme. From what he'd read in the files that Tucker had delivered to him his end at the hands of that Russian had been long and drawn out, messy and painful. ' _Just what the stupid fucker deserved_ ' he fumed.

The work of years had gone up in smoke, as dead as those kids. Someone had to pay for that and while both Syme and the Russian may be beyond his reach Benson wasn't so she'd have to suffice, for now. He looked up at Donner.

"Make it happen"


	61. Chapter 61

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 61**

 **Olivia**

I was heading out, I didn't feel like it but I was forcing myself out and amongst people, the reason was supposedly the need to buy stuff for tonight's dinner but I was in desperate need of some fresh air. The walk to the local supermarket and bodega would give me a chance to clear my head and soak up a little of the weak sun shining through the scattered morning clouds outside.

Alex and I had finished breakfast and were heading out together; I'd grabbed everything I needed, cell, keys, wallet, my badge, my pistol which went into its holster at my back, I'd done it so much it was practically unconscious action, done on auto-pilot, when I heard Alex's urgent call from the front door.

"Liv, come here" At her words and tone I went to high alert, quickly rushing to the front door to see her crouching down, looking at an envelope on the floor. As I approached she looked up.

"It fell forward to lie there when I pulled the door open" She looked back down at it. "It's addressed to you"

I bent down to examine it, suspicious and glad that Alex hadn't touched it, though after all these years of talking about evidence she knew what not to do. I frowned and looked to her.

"Charlie didn't call to mention a delivery or someone coming up to drop one off did he?" Alex shook her head and confirmed my suspicions as I leaned in to look at it.

"No, nothing" I nodded; the envelope was a creamy white, standard letter size, with my name written on the front in a neat hand. Picking it up by the edges I flipped it over, naturally there was no return address, or a stamp for that matter. Which meant that someone had made their way up here, left this at our door and left again, all undetected. That realisation made me grimace; obviously our building was nowhere near as secure as it was supposed to be. I looked up at Alex.

"Someone wanted me to get this rather bad; let's see what they want to say" Alex nodded, obviously curious and following my lead.

Closing the door I wandered back into the kitchen and grabbed a sharp knife, neatly slitting the envelope open and upending it to see a single sheet of paper fall out onto the bench top. I used the knife to flip it open, seeing a couple of rows of text written there in the same clear hand as the address as I started to read it.

' _Detective Benson, please accept my congratulations on completing your investigation into your most recent case. I am pleased that my initial impressions of you were correct and that you have indeed upheld your end of our agreement._

 _I note from perusing all of the recent media reports that there is no indication that Viktor Illich Lysenko acted in concert with any others. While we both know he had assistance I appreciate your discretion in this matter._

 _To further assist in bringing this matter to a close I note that the former cultural attaché at the New York embassy, Stepan Belinsky, suffered a fatal accident after fleeing back to Moscow to escape his role in this matter. He apparently fell from a platform of the Moscow Metro in front of an oncoming train._

 _I believe this concludes our arrangement._

 _I wish you good fortune Detective_ '

Naturally it was unsigned. I sat back, stunned and shaking a little.

"Oh my god" At my stunned words Alex looked from the letter to me so I handed it to read to her, uncaring of fingerprints, I knew this letter was never going to be seen by anyone else. Once I managed to get over the fact that possibly the most powerful man in organised crime in the whole of the US had just written me a letter, I started to think it through.

It made sense; Lysenko needed someone on the inside to arrange passports and visas, who better than the embassy's spymaster? Sure as hell no one was going to question Belinsky, not if they knew what was good for them. Jordan had told us that he'd left for Moscow a few days after the shootout at the power plant, making us suspicious of his motives; this sure seemed to confirm he was Lysenko's man.

It also confirmed that he hadn't actually managed to escape justice though it seemed the Organizatsia's brand of 'justice' was a lot more quick, brutal and final than ours ever would have been.

"Damn" At Alex's comment I turned to her. "Liv does this mean what I think it does?" I nodded and settled onto the stool.

"You might as well take a seat Angel" She sat down and over the next few minutes I explained about our 'deal' with Popov and its results. Alex sat quietly throughout it all. Once I finished she shook her head.

"You and Kate were taking a hell of a chance Liv" I shrugged; we weren't, not really, not when you thought it through, as I explained.

"Not really, he wasn't going to do anything to us, not when the department was aware we were going to go talk to him, after all he has a façade as an honest businessman to maintain" I reached up to brush the hair out of my eyes, it had grown a bit longer and I needed a trim. "He's not dumb, very smart in fact, he made a decision based on what he deemed best for him and his people" I glanced at the letter. "I didn't expect they'd go after Belinsky though, especially not all the way to Russia" Alex shook her head then spoke.

"I thought he was involved somehow, I mean it was a KGB poison, he was KGB, or whatever they're calling themselves now, he probably knew Lysenko from before and he was right on the ground here in New York" I sat there for a few seconds, thinking over what she'd said, the replied.

"It makes sense in retrospect, we were too focussed on Lysenko to look elsewhere until he was dead" I shook my head. "With Lysenko dead he bolted, given how we were shutting down his operation Belinsky was probably already planning to get out of the country" Alex nodded.

"It doesn't seem to have helped him at all" she said as I thought it over, Belinsky had become an embarrassment to the Russian Government, but shoving him in front of an oncoming train was a little too showy, not to mention messy, for the Russian Government, they could have made him vanish at any time. No this was Sergei Alexander Popov's way of bringing this to a close; the thought made me shiver slightly, the man's reach was frightening. I looked up at Alex and spoke quietly.

"I really, really never want to meet or speak to Popov ever again" Alex nodded enthusiastically.

"I completely understand that, talk about supping with the devil" She grimaced then looked up. "Promise me you'll never do something like that again Liv, it's too dangerous" I could have argued the toss but didn't; this was Alex and she was too important to me to make her worry like that.

"I promise" I thought about it then temporised. "At least not without talking to you first" I got a piercing look before she nodded once then looked down at the letter. Finally she stared off into the distance and spoke reflectively.

"At least Belinsky did eventually pay for his crimes too" I nodded slowly, though he was another who'd managed to dodge a trial and spending the rest of his life in jail.

"Messy way to go though, mind you I don't have too much sympathy given what he was helping Lysenko do" Alex nodded as she stared at the wall off to one side, obviously lost in thought as I re-read the letter until her quiet voice broke into my thoughts.

"I have a confession to make Liv" I looked up from the letter, straight into a pair of crystal blue eyes, eyes that seemed darker with something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"What's up Angel?" She shifted on the stool then waved at the letter.

"I did something I shouldn't" I frowned.

"Like what?"

"I spoke to Belinsky" in a flash I put the pieces together, it was obvious in hindsight.

"You were the woman in the car park, the one who talked to Belinsky!" She nodded; her face red with embarrassment as she spoke quietly.

"You'd told me how he wasn't helpful in finding anything about the poison antidote or even the suppressant…" She shrugged eloquently. "I figured that if anyone in New York could provide anything on a KGB poison, it was the local KGB spy" I sat there stunned for a moment, it all made sense, Alex knew all about the case, we discussed it most nights, as she'd offered to prosecute the case when it went to trial it was all above board.

She knew all about my suspicions about Belinsky's refusal to pass on any information, and Jordan's explanation how the lives of the kids didn't matter, not when it came to protecting a Cold War KGB secret

The State Department investigation had looked at every woman involved in the case, detectives, ME's, even people on the periphery of the case like Tori Ellis and Captain Gates but they'd never looked at Alex because she hadn't officially been assigned to the case. Unconsciously I echoed her previous statement.

"Jesus Al, you were taking a hell of a risk" She nodded slowly before quietly answering.

"I know, but I couldn't sit and watch all those kids die without doing something, besides, I could see what it was doing to you too" We sat there for a minute, staring at each other for a moment before I nodded gently.

"Well, at least you weren't harmed, and it looks like your instincts were right" She nodded as I pushed on. " Now it's your turn to promise that you'll never do anything that dangerous again Alex; you're too important to me to put yourself at risk like that" She looked at me and nodded before speaking.

"I promise" She smiled a little shy smile. "And I'm sorry you got into trouble about it" I waved it away with a gesture.

"No blood, no foul. It's all in the past, and that's where it should stay, okay" She gave me a nervous quick nod before replying.

"Looks like we both have good reasons for not mentioning any of this to anyone"

I nodded slowly. She was right; IA could use this to crucify me, while Alex's involvement could place her career in jeopardy. For a moment I felt humbled, Alex had done that for me, for the kids really, but she'd gone out on a limb to help me. I looked over at her and smiled a little, how could I not love her when she'd take those risks for me? I raised an eyebrow,

"C'mere" I held my arms out and she slipped off the stool and made her way into my embrace, I laid a kiss to the top of her head as she buried herself into my shoulder while I couldn't help a smile.

Things might seem a little dire right now, but with Alex in my arms everything seemed so much more manageable.


	62. Chapter 62

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 62**

 **Alex**

I walked in to the apartment, dropping my Prada bag on the side table and hanging my coat and scarf on the rack near the door then stretched happily.

The apartment was warm and welcoming, not just from the heat but from the smells coming from the kitchen. One silver lining of Liv having time off was that she was home and doing the cooking, mostly simple food but warm and filling. Last night had been tomato soup with hot bread, simple plain food but wonderful after a cold trip home after a long day. Interested to know what Liv was planning given I smelled roasting chicken I wandered into the kitchen, finding Liv there and getting a smile and a kiss as she moved round the kitchen with a cloth tossed over her shoulder which she used to wipe her hands as she checked on various items cooking on the stove and in the oven and microwave.

'Hi Tiger, what's for dinner, it smells nice?" She smiled as she poured frozen minted peas into a microwavable container and then popped the lid on, setting it aside.

"Tonight its roast chicken and potatoes, carrots and pumpkin, with steamed beans and mint peas" I nodded, smiling as Liv opened the oven to check on it, letting the smell of roasting chicken waft over me, ' _yum_ '.

"Sounds good, you're getting better at dinner" She played it off, closing the door and looking at me.

"I just follow the directions" She waved at a printed page from a cooking website on the bench top. "There's about ten minutes to go" She turned the stove's gas jet on, sliding a saucepan full of water onto the burner and put a steamer full of green beans on top. "It's pretty easy, I downloaded the recipe from the net, the chicken is butterflied Peri Peri chicken from the store and the vegies are just oiled and put in the oven" She smiled, a little sheepishly. "It seems easy enough as long as I follow directions and get the timings right" I smiled.

"You are good at following directions, aren't you" I got a smirk as she spoke.

"Yes Ma'am" My smile widened.

"Good girl" We exchanged a sly glance before I brought us back to the subject of dinner. "Well it sure smells nice" She waved her index finger at me.

"Let's wait and see how it actually tastes okay" I nodded, smiling easily. Taking in her jeans, runners and sweat shirt I turned and wandered out of the kitchen calling back over my shoulder.

"If I've got ten minutes I'm going to get changed" Her voice followed me across the living room and up the hall.

"Ten minutes is okay, no later though" I smiled and made my way into our bedroom, shucking my suit and hanging it up on a hanger for dry cleaning, putting my blouse on another hangar; it too would be dry cleaned, kicking off my shoes and placing them in the big shoe caddy in the end of the wardrobe. Pulling on jeans and a wonderfully comfortable sweat shirt plus a set of 'ugg boot' wool-lined slippers, so warm and soft I was prepared to overlook just how horribly unstylish they were, I made my way into the bathroom and removed most of my makeup, leaving me feeling so much more relaxed, then wandered back out to the kitchen.

Liv gave me a small smile as I wandered back into the kitchen.

"Just in time" she said. "I was about to call you" Liv was cutting slices of chicken and plating them up where they joined the roast vegetables. Next she turned off the gas jets and dished up steamed green beans for us both and was smearing some butter on them when the microwave dinged, announcing the peas were ready. She dumped the peas onto both plates as I asked the question.

"Which one's mine?" She shrugged.

"Either" I grabbed the closest one and we made our way out to the dining table.

"We chatted for a while about our days as we polished off the dinner, it was filling and tasted good; Liv's had been quiet, the trip to the supermarket having been the highlight of her day. I'd mentioned one of Amaro and Rollin's cases we were about to take to trial before launching into a strange experience I'd had.

"I was out getting coffee and had decided to walk up to that café two blocks up from the office that does really nice coffee's…" Liv nodded, she knew it well. "Anyway I was a couple of doors down from it when I ran into an old friend, well I thought they were" Liv's brows knitted in confusion as she spoke.

"Why, what happened?" I shook my head, perplexed.

"l don't know. I spotted this woman, Brooke Harding, I knew her growing up on Long Island, went to the same junior high before heading off to college" I shrugged. "I've since seen her a few times in the last few years and she's always been friendly, but this time she was completely different" Liv looked at me and spoke.

"How so?" I shrugged, perplexed at Brooke's behaviour.

"She looked at me like I had the plague, practically ignored me; she looked kinda mad, then sneered at me and turned away" Liv frowned as she thought it through then asked a question.

"And you have no idea what set her off?" I shook my head.

"No idea, I don't really interact with her after graduating beyond occasionally crossing paths with her at the annual alumni dinner, which I didn't attend last year" I shrugged, still a little stunned by her attitude. "I was tied up on the Madrigal case last year" Liv nodded, she remembered that one, it was hard to forget a mother who let her low-life addict boyfriend pimp out her daughter to pay for their combined drug habits.

"Was that the thing we went to two years ago?" She looked my way and raised an eyebrow. "We had dinner in the school hall to fund raise?" I nodded at her recollection; that was the one.

"Yes" Liv nodded.

"Thought that was it, as I recall we had a good time, can't recall this Harding woman" She stretched an arm out and grabbed for her phone as she spoke. "Incidentally you have mail on the coffee table"

I looked over and saw a couple of envelopes and smiled, Liv was very careful not to open anything addressed to me, worried about overstepping the mark, no matter how I often I tell her she's being silly. I heaved myself up and wandered over, picking up three envelopes and sorting them as I walked back over and sat down to open and read them.

One was a letter from the company that managed the building, letting us know they were looking at doing some work in the underground car park two weeks from now, the second was an invitation to a conference on corporate law, that one got put aside with the envelopes for dumping in the trash as Liv broke in.

"Is this her?" I looked up to see her holding her smart phone out, recognising the image there as Brooke.

"That's her" Liv nodded and regarded the screen once more.

"I remember her, she seemed okay from what I can recall" I chewed my lip as Liv went back to her phone before I opened the last letter, seeing the logo of the Manhattan Ballet on the envelope. I didn't get to go as often as I liked, but still kept up my subscription, had done for years. I tore it open and started to read, frowning at the wording I saw there.

' _We regret to inform you that your membership renewal to the Manhattan Ballet has been declined. This is due to the Ballet conducting a review of attendance records of members and culling those who have not attended sufficient productions in the last two years…_ '

"What the fuck!" I spoke before I'd realised I had while reflecting that Liv's vocabulary was rubbing off on me, mind you some things require a little profanity. Seeing Liv look up in surprise I waved the letter at her as I explained. "Apparently the Manhattan Ballet is rejecting memberships by people who, and I quote, ' _have not attended sufficient productions in the last two years_ ', that's ridiculous" Liv screwed her face up, obviously perplexed.

"You've been a member there for what, ten years?" I nodded.

"At least, longer maybe" I shook my head. "You'd think they'd be happy to take my money even if I wasn't attending, in fact as I recall about six months ago they were looking for me to commit to a fund raiser to help support a production of Dawson's work A Million Kisses to My Skin" Seeing her questioning look I explained. "It's a contemporary piece, very technically difficult, and they wanted additional funding to try and do it justice" She nodded slowly.

"That's weird, on one hand they're trying to raise money, on the other they're turning your membership away" I nodded, as surprised as she was. I picked up my phone and started surfing ballet news sites and blogs, seeing if I could find out anything more on what was a seemingly ridiculous decision. I knew they weren't exactly overly endowed with members; they'd eagerly solicited my membership last year, certainly nothing had been suggested about culling memberships.

I'd been surfing for probably ten minutes, finding nothing when Liv cleared her throat, and spoke, a little hesitantly.

"Uh Angel, I might know what happened" I looked up seeing her pensive expression.

"What" About the ballet?" She looked nonplussed for a second then shook her head.

"No, about Brooke Harding" I put my phone down and looked her way.

"Okay…what have you learned?" Liv glanced down at the phone then back up at me.

"Brooke Harding is the niece of one Thomas Kinkaid, he's old money; works in the finance industry here in Manhattan and is on the First Long Island Trust's board" I nodded slowly, trying to remember if I'd heard that name when Liv enlightened me. "He was one of the people the media named on Lysenko's client list" I felt my mouth drop open for a moment before I shut it with a snap. Finally I spoke.

"Oh" She nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I guess she found out that I was one of the investigating officers and now she blames you" I grimaced as I put two and two together.

While Andrea Sykes and the others had been as good as their word and kept Liv and the other people on the case's name's out of the spotlight, when other media started digging they'd somehow got the list of investigating officers and published them, putting Liv and Kate and Jordan and all the other's involvement out there for the world to see.

It would be a small step from seeing Liv's name to tying me to the case, which of course I had been, Liv had accompanied me to that dinner two years ago, so Brooke would have recognised Liv's name. The fact that we'd not had any of the client's names obviously didn't matter to Brooke, her uncle was named and she blamed Liv and by association, me. I shook my head as I spoke.

"She's angry and lashing out" Liv looked woeful.

"I'm sorry Alex, so sorry" I shook my head at that.

"You did your job, same as I was, as I would have done if we'd had the client list" I frowned. "If we'd been able to tie her uncle to Lysenko, I'd have been the one prosecuting him" I shrugged, it wasn't fair but sometimes what we did wasn't. "Then she'd really have something to complain about" Liv didn't look particularly convinced at my comment.

"But she was your friend Alex, maybe if I hadn't talked to Andrea…" I shut that line of thought off right there.

"Because you did, Kinkaid and all the others are paying the penalty for what they did. Maybe not in a court and in a cell, but they're paying for their crimes in another way" I shook my head, I'd come to terms with this particular side of being a prosecutor long ago. "They made the choice to break the law, now they're paying for that decision" Liv chewed her lip for a moment then nodded slowly, I knew what she was thinking, Liv wanted justice, she just didn't want me to be caught up in any fallout for what she'd done; that was my beautiful Liv, shouldering the burdens of the world so others didn't have to.

I smiled at her and was about to say something when she suddenly got a suspicious look on her face.

"I wonder…" She grabbed her phone and started typing, pausing to look up at me. "That was the Manhattan Ballet?" I nodded, already having an inkling of what she was looking for. Less than a minute later she looked up, an appalled expression on her face.

"One of the Manhattan Ballet's Board members is…" I saw where she was going with this.

"Carlton Chester" I interrupted, then nodded. "I forgot; he was on the list too" Liv looked miserable.

"Yeah, I wonder if he's worked out I was one of the cops investigating, somehow learned we're together and he's taking it out on you" I shook my head and held up my phone.

"It's possible I guess, I mean I haven't heard anything that suggests that the Ballet's culling members, certainly nothing along the lines of that letter" Shaking her head Liv spoke.

"I'm kinda stunned that he's still on the Ballet's board, what with him being named and all?" I shrugged as I tried to explain.

"The way some of these things go, they'll let him hang on a for a bit before he steps down due to health concerns or to spend more time with his family or to devote more time to other interests or some such drivel" Liv looked disgusted.

"So they let him go with dignity?" I nodded.

"Yes, that's how people like that operate, he'll have been told his time is limited and that he should make arrangements to step down soon to protect the institution"

"Those arrangements include cancelling your membership it seems" I sighed wearily.

"I don't doubt you're right. I'll make some enquiries about re-joining once he's gone" I shrugged. "It's petty and spiteful but if that's all then it's not much, not really" Liv looked towards me and shook her head slowly.

"I'm sorry Alex; I know how much you like the Ballet when we can get to a performance…" I smiled, trying to reassure her.

"That's okay, at worst I replace my membership there for one with the New York Ballet" I waved my hand dismissively. "I'll survive"

Liv nodded slowly, I could tell she was retreating inside her head again, when she was like this I knew she was falling into that dark place again, no doubt blaming herself for everything that had happened.

Sure enough despite my best attempts to engage her she begged off, letting me know she was feeling tired and needed a nap. I knew that one of the ways depression manifested itself in Liv was exhaustion, god knows I'd seen enough of it in the last two weeks to recognise the signs.

I watched sadly as she gave me a kiss on the top of my head and trudged up the hall, once again carrying the weight of the world on her unsteady shoulders.

I knew things couldn't go on like this, something had to change, I just didn't know what.


	63. Chapter 63

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 63**

 **Olivia**

The weather was a bit gloomy this morning, a match for my mood I guess. I'd dragged myself out of the apartment to go and see George Huang, an old friend and most importantly in this context a very experienced psychiatrist who understood what SVU entailed, he'd supported SVU for years before getting out and going into clinical practice, George had been smart enough to see the SVU burnout coming and had got out early.

I was off to see him because two days ago I'd received an official phone call from the NYPD's medical evaluation people telling me that I had to see a psychiatrist, I'd notified the department that I'd go see George and they'd arranged an appointment.

George and I go way back, if anyone understood the strain that SVU places on people it'd be him. I knew he'd understand what I was feeling, god knows he'd seen enough bad cases to no doubt have his own issues as well. I'd caught the subway down to the closest stop to the building he worked in, appreciating the chance to get out of the apartment. I wasn't normally a shut in but lately I found myself overwhelmed by all that had happened.

I think I was the only one of the team having issues, I'd spoken to some of the others the morning the story broke; Kate, Jordan and Mac had all called to discuss the client list, all wondering how in hell the media had found it. None of us knew how they'd got it but we were all grateful that these people were paying for it, perhaps not in the way we wanted, but at least there was some justice in the world. None of them had asked me about how the media had got onto the case and I'd not volunteered anything, they didn't need to know and this way they were protected from any blowback from that bastard Thomas.

From what I'd gathered the others had gone back to work after a couple of days, something I really wasn't ready for, the thought of another paedophile case, another abused child filled me with a combination of dread, repulsion and a little bit of fear, I don't know what had got into me but I wasn't handling things the way I normally did. I hadn't said anything to Alex but part of me wondered if I was burnt out, unable to go back to SVU. It happened to everyone over time; maybe I'd been kidding myself when I'd thought it wouldn't happen to me too.

God knows the couple of weeks since Viktoriya had passed had been misery, In the first few days I'd lacked the ability, let alone the motivation, to get up and get dressed, instead lying in bed and sleeping lots, When I was asleep I had occasional nightmares but at least I wasn't seeing non-stop replays of what had happened in the power plant and the faces of Lysenko's youngest victims staring back at me accusingly.

By the end of the week I'd started forcing myself to get up when Alex did, having a shower and wandering around the loft, even though Alex didn't push me, she understood that I was struggling to cope, bless her. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have her, probably go mad or become a hermit, refusing to come out of whatever deep, dark hole I'd find to hide in.

To fill in my day I tried watching television but there was too much bad news there, instead I'd ended up watching lots of cat videos on YouTube and when that had finally palled I'd ended up working my way through the full Marvel superhero movie catalogue from the first Iron Man movie through to the latest. There was something comforting in watching the good guys win time after time, nothing like real life.

I'd taken to trying to cook for Alex each night for a couple of reasons. It meant I had to worry about something other than myself which was good, plus it kept my mind busy working out what I was going to make. It also meant I had to venture out to buy the ingredients for dinner, it was only a block and a half down the street to the shops but it was all about forcing me to make myself presentable and interact with people. The first few days had been surprisingly hard but was getting easier with practice.

I was about ten minutes early for my appointment as I entered the foyer of George's building when I saw an elevator open and there was George, coat on and briefcase in hand. He stopped when he saw me with a look of surprise.

"Liv, how are you?" I pushed out a smile.

"Okay I guess" He frowned; no doubt at my answer then spoke.

"What brings you down here?" I must have looked as confused as I felt.

"I have an 11 o'clock with you, for a post incident evaluation" George frowned.

"I was informed you'd cancelled, plus I was called into an urgent meeting down at 1PP" His frown deepened. "You didn't cancel?" I shook my head.

"No way, you know you're my go-to guy" He nodded and pulled out his cell phone.

"Let me check up on it" He placed a call as I listened in to his end.

"Tonia, it's me…yes, not far at all. Did I have an eleven o'clock with Olivia Benson for a post incident review?" He listened for a few seconds. "No, I've just bumped into her and she didn't cancel…very strange…thanks…" He looked my way and spoke in an aside. "She's looking it up now" I nodded as he went back to listening. "Okay, who did…Can you check who with? Thanks" He looked at me with a surprised expression. "The Department cancelled it, said you'd chosen another doctor" I vigorously shook my head.

"No way!" He nodded then listened carefully to what Tonia was saying.

"I see…can you repeat that name…okay…got it…can you look them up and forward me all the details you can find, thank you so much" He looked at me with an expression I didn't recognise then spoke again. "Tonia, do me a huge favour and send my apologies to Lieutenant Cartwright and that I'll miss the meeting, tell them a patient needed me urgently and that it just came up" He nodded a few times. "You're a life saver, thanks, talk to you later" With that he ended the call and looked at me. "We need to get out of here"

A few minutes later we were sitting in a café nursing a coffee for me and a tea for him as he finished reading a text message then looked up.

"Apparently someone in the department cancelled the appointment. They left a message that if you turned up you were to be directed to another psychiatrist, a Charles Moore, downtown" I frowned.

"Never heard of them, have you?" He shook his head.

"No, not at all, they're definitely not one of the usual doctors the department uses for post incident evaluations, or at least I've never heard of them" He frowned. "Tonia's just sent me a quick update on them" He looked down and skimmed the text. "Charles Moore the third, son of a wealthy New York high-society family, medicine at Yale, did borderline okay there, been practicing for almost two decades, heavily engaged in the arts, he sits on a few boards, that sort of thing, obviously well connected" George frowned then looked up. "He's not on the NYPD's list of psychiatrists, for one thing his usual fees are way too high for normal government work" I frowned, feeling an icy ball form in my stomach.

"Does he have a speciality?" George nodded.

"He apparently does a lot of work for the top end of town, executive stress apparently" He snorted at that then continued. "Treats their depressed wives and mistresses, their ADD kids, that sort of thing" I sat back as I thought it through as George watched before I ran my hand through my hair and spoke.

"Oh shit" He tipped his head to regard me as he spoke.

"Mind telling me what's happening here Liv, cause I'm confused" I nodded.

"I was on a bad case, you may have heard about that Russian paedophile case that was in the media recently?" I saw his face get that ' _ah-ha_ ' look as I nodded and confirmed it. "I was on that case" He nodded slowly as he put his smartphone down and reached for his cup.

"It looked like a pretty bad one" I nodded again.

"It was, everyone that the guy running it came into contact with ended up dead" I shrugged. "He even tried coming after the team investigating him, drive-by shootings, bombings, hit men, you name it" The immediate concern on his face was very welcome.

"Shit Liv, is everyone okay?" I bobbed my head.

"Physically yes, I think we all came out of it a bit messed up"" George nodded.

"As I recall from the news there were a lot of kids deaths weren't there?" I grimaced then sighed.

"Twenty actually all up, they all died in agony" I saw George wince in empathetic pain before I pushed on. "Anyway all the evidence on the case disappeared from the 12th Precinct's storage area, someone with an unassigned Internal Affairs pass got in and took off with it all" His surprise was obvious.

"No idea who in Internal Affairs did it?" I shook my head at his question.

"Not exactly, though I can hazard a guess on who's order it was" He sat back and looked interested.

"Go on" I shrugged with a nonchalance I definitely wasn't feeling.

"One of the customers of the Russian's services was City Counsellor Syme" George raised a finger at that point.

"I remember that from the article in the Bulletin, so much for his do-gooder credentials" George got a thoughtful look on his face. "Didn't he end up dead?" I pulled a face.

"Very; anyway we didn't have any of the other clients, but somehow the media got wind of the case, started digging and managed to find the client list, something we weren't able to do" he nodded.

"And…"

"There were a lot of rich powerful people on that list and it appears that some of those people or their allies were working to kill the case and bury the details" I shrugged again, trying to keep the satisfaction out of my voice. "Stuff all chance of that after the media splashed their names all over the place" He nodded slowly then spoke.

"That will have significant repercussions on their lives and careers, even if nothing could be proven in a court" I nodded once.

"Exactly" He pursed his lips as he replied.

"That right there is motive for retaliation" I sighed then took a breath before replying.

"IA's been after me since the case blew up, first it was Tucker who came after me, that didn't work out so well for him, he ran afoul of the Captain of the 12th and she lost it big time" George nodded slowly; he knew of Tucker and sipped his tea as I continued. "The next time was a visit from Deputy Commissioner Thomas" The tea cup hit the saucer with a slight clatter as George stared at me, then spoke.

"Are we talking Internal Affairs Thomas, that Deputy Commissioner?" I nodded as a look of concern appeared. "Damn Liv, that's a hell of a lot of trouble coming after you" I scowled, pissed at Thomas for all sorts of reasons.

"Trust me I know. He turned up at our place and accused me straight up of leaking to the media"

"Did you?" He shook his head before I could say anything. "On second thoughts I don't want to know" I smiled, grateful for his tact.

"Anyway, he told me he would break me, that I'd never work as a cop again, he'd break me and run me out of the department. Something about winding up in the gutter" George's face tightened in anger as he interjected.

"Which an adverse psychiatric assessment would go a long way towards assisting" I nodded; really glad George was so quick on the uptake. He sat back for a few seconds, thinking it through as I sat there before finally he looked up and spoke; his voice was quiet as he laid it out.

"Someone in the department wanted to make sure that you had your assessment done by a very specific psychiatrist. They cancelled your appointment with me, called me into a no-notice meeting so I wouldn't be there, I mean it was just luck we crossed paths; they also made very sure my assistant was to direct you to this Moore guy, what's the bet he will have been carefully selected to deliver just the result they want?" I shook my head.

"It's a fix, no doubt there" He nodded and continued on.

"You said many of the people who got implicated were high society people, plus their allies?" I nodded at his question, already seeing where he was going with this.

"Yeah, lots of the top end of town" He nodded slowly.

"Exactly the sort of person this Moore guy is part of; the right schools then Yale; well connected, all the right clubs and boards, old money, society connections, he's almost certainly been pulled in to ensure you fail" I felt a shiver down my spine as I replied.

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too" We sat there quiet for a moment before he looked up and spoke.

"Liv I'm so sorry" I gave him a wan smile, sympathy was nice but it wasn't helping.

"What should I do?" He frowned before replying.

"Even if I did the evaluation, they'd find some way to disregard it, in the end you'd end up with this Moore character and we both know where that leads" He shook his head. "Maybe the union can help?" I sadly shook my head; I'd explored that avenue already.

"Not really, they've been careful to ensure they're acting legally, I have to undergo a post-event psyche eval, I bet if I check the regs they have the right to determine which doctor I see" He nodded.

"It's likely" He tipped his head to regard me then spoke a little diffidently. "I know you've always been reluctant to use Alex's connections but can she help you?" I shook my head.

"I don't really want to, they might go after her as well, at least this way it's just me" I made a sweeping motion across the table top. "I don't want her to suffer"

"By taking it all on yourself?" He grimaced. "That's not going to help you or her" I pulled a face as I remembered Thomas' threats.

"Thomas said that he could go after her, I don't want to give him a reason to" He nodded slowly as he replied.

"It's your call and your neck on the line Liv so what now?" I frowned and stared down into the dregs of my cup as I spoke.

"If I fail the eval, I can't be a cop. That means a desk job somewhere while I try and get cleared to go back to being a cop" I shook my head. "Thomas has said I can't go back to SVU because of the conflict of interest with Alex doing their cases, even though we don't handle the same cases, so even if I do get my badge back it won't be there"

"I…don't know what to say Liv, I really don't" I smiled a little at his forlorn expression.

"Maybe I should look at leaving the NYPD, maybe find another job in law enforcement somewhere" I hadn't really thought that far into it but there were other agencies who could use an experienced veteran cop. George frowned and shook his head.

"If you're looking at that you need to resign before they can force you into the evaluation, if we're right and Moore fails you, then that will follow you wherever you go, it'll make it almost impossible to get a job" I hadn't thought of that.

"Oh fuck!"


	64. Chapter 64

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 64**

 **Liv**

Another day, another unpleasant visitor, this one had also badged his way past Charlie down in the foyer and was already on his way up, leaving a fuming Charlie in his wake as he rang to tell me; muttering something about how they should look at putting a lock on the elevators. I smiled a little ruefully and told him his apologies weren't necessary, some people were just naturally unpleasant though I didn't realise just how true that was going to be.

A minute later I was opening the door, the comforting weight of my Glock in the back of my jeans, to see Tucker standing there, I didn't bother hiding my groan.

"Jesus, what are you doing here?" He smirked.

"Benson, nice to see you too" I grimaced as I spoke, not caring if he heard my disdain.

"I could ask you to explain how you still have a job after your little performance back in the 12th but somehow the thought of you escaping the justice you deserve doesn't really surprise me" He shrugged, unconcerned.

"Whatever" He went to brush past me, coming to a stop when I stiff armed him, his chest running into my palm and stopping cold. "Get out of the way" he snarled, I just shook my head.

"Let's see your warrant" I waited a second but he said nothing, making me smile a little. "Say your piece then get out" He wasn't impressed, making his usual crappy manner even worse.

"Fine, be a fucking bitch all you want, you'll get yours soon enough" I crossed my arms and waited him out as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a piece of paper, folded into thirds like it was supposed to fit into an envelope, and held it out to me. I looked from him to it and back, not taking it as I asked the obvious.

'What is it?" He smiled.

"Your official notification to turn up for a mandatory psych assessment next week, personally delivered with my compliments" His smile widened unpleasantly as he continued. "Given you ducked the last one, this one comes with a few additional measures" I kept my arms crossed and waited; Tucker seemed a little disappointed I wouldn't rise to the bait. "Failure to attend will be taken as grounds for disciplinary action" I chewed my lip as I looked at the paper, Tucker must have realised I wasn't going to take it as he flicked it past me and into the hall then pulled out his cell and photographed it lying there as I scowled. "It's officially been delivered Benson, so you've got no fucking excuse not to be there"

I shook my head; pricks like Tucker can't help but tell you just how clever they are.

"Let me guess, it's your very own, hand-picked shrink right, some guy named Moore?" Tucker shrugged, thought the smirk showed how much he was enjoying this.

"Specially selected just for you Benson, though it doesn't matter, you're a loose cannon, something the shrink's gonna sign off on, his report will state categorically that you're a psycho-case and unfit to be a cop" I shook my head in disgust.

"Naturally, the fix is in so let me make another guess, the reports already written, right?" His smile widened.

"Only the best for a nasty little dyke like you Benson, this time next week your days as a cop are finished, the paperwork for your transfer out of SVU and into administration's already been drawn up and signed" I felt sick, this was the system being manipulated by bastards like Thomas and his lap dog Tucker. I was about to say something but he butted in. "And just in case you had any idea of getting out of it on medical grounds, any attempt to get a medical certificate will require you to be examined by a medical practitioner chosen by the Department" I sneered at him, completely unsurprised.

"Let me guess, you just happen to have one selected, right?" He nodded in satisfaction.

"Right there on the bottom of the page, an old golfing buddy of Thomas' apparently, it's all part of the service" All the frustration that had been building up inside me burst out.

"What the fuck do you get out of this Tucker, out of harassing me I mean?" I shook my head in frustration and anger. "You've looked for evidence against me ever since you first turned up all those years ago and not found anything, not once, ever, and do you know why? It's because there's nothing there to find" Tucker wasn't fazed.

"You're dirty Benson, you've been able to hide it so far but eventually I'll find it and then I'll happily toss you in Rikers, the inmates love bent cops there and the guards are happy to turn a blind eye to whatever happens to them" Exasperated I waved behind me.

"For fuck's sake Tucker, look where I live, who my partner is, do I look like I have any reason to take a fucking bribe?" I rolled my eyes at his stupidity. "Do I honestly look like my life is so miserably shitty that I have to stoop to taking bribes to make ends meet?"

"You may be Cabot's play toy right now, but you're dirty and sooner or later I'll find the evidence I need to prove it" I shook my head as I replied, almost pityingly, though this piece of shit didn't deserve it.

"Not a single sign of anything over all these years, every time you've investigated you've found nothing, not a thing and you know why, its cause there's nothing there to find" Tucker either wasn't or more likely didn't want to listen, instead continuing on with his raving.

"Your crooked Benson, dirty; I wasn't able to find out what you and Stabler were up to in SVU, but it doesn't matter, not now, with Thomas on my side you're going down, doesn't matter if you're dirty or not your fucked"

"You're an obsessed son of a bitch who gets off on harassing good cops" I turned a contemptuous look on him. "You might even have been a good cop once, maybe, now though you're just an empty suit, puffed up on outrage and suspicion; as for play toys, well it's painfully obvious that it's Thomas who's jerking your strings" He sneered at me.

"Keep going Benson, this time next week you're going to be nothing; a miserable, burnt out, soon to be unemployable dyke bitch" He chucked evilly. "If I'd known Thomas could set things up like this I'd have tossed my lot in with him years ago"

"If anyone here's dirty it's you two, fucking cops over to suit your scummy little schemes" I shook my head, disgust colouring every word. "God help you when you're no longer of any use to him Tucker, if you think this is bad, you'll get far worse treatment" He brayed out an unpleasant laugh.

"Maybe, but I intend to stay useful and in his good books for long enough to make Captain, and handing him your head up on a platter's a big down payment on Captain's rank" I shook my head in disgust and disbelief at the thought of this vindictive son of a bitch ever making Captain.

"Jesus, you a Captain, no way Reagan would sign off on that, hell Gates would go ballistic at that after your little performance back in the 12th" He sneered at my comment, obviously unbothered.

"Reagan's days are numbered and when Thomas replaces him; and that's when, not if Benson, Gates will get what's coming to her soon enough, she's on Thomas' shit list too, just like you, it'll just take a little longer but she's just as fucked" He brayed out a nasty laugh. "Maybe I might replace her at the 12th, if it'd mean I get to take care of that cute little fuck buddy of yours, Beckett, she's a nice piece of ass, she can have my personal attention, put out or get out" I ground down on my first reaction which was to shoot him and spoke, low and angry.

"Kate Beckett is a hundred times the cop you've ever been; you're not fit to clean her boots, let alone be her boss"

"Ah but there you're wrong Benson, Thomas will give me exactly what I want for your head, Captain of the 12th is easy given there's gonna be a vacancy there when Gates gets hers, so I ask for that and get what I want, either fucking Beckett or fucking up her career, either one suits me" I thought of Tucker trying to ruin Kate the way he was ruining me and felt sick to my stomach.

"That's never going to happen you puffed up douchebag" Tucker just favoured me with a shit-eating grin as he laid it out for me.

"With Thomas as Commissioner and him owing me for ruining you, the skies the limit Benson, I like the idea of fucking your girlfriends, Beckett first, maybe Cabot later" I saw red at that.

"You come near Cabot and I'll kill you as soon as look at you"

"With Thomas as Commissioner I'll be untouchable so spare me the threats Benson, besides you won't be in any position to carry them out from a cell in Rikers" I shook my head, though ice ran through my veins at his words.

"Thomas as Commissioner; Jesus, no way in hell" Tucker laughed happily at me.

"Now you see just how bad you're fucked Benson, you think you can hide somewhere down in admin, no way, I'll be there to drag you out of whatever hell hole you end up in and will be more than happy to kick your ass out into the street where you can scavenge like the piece of shit you are" I barely listened to him rant as my mind leaped from place to place; ' _holy shit_ '. If Thomas was ever likely to make Commissioner there'd be nowhere I could hide from him, as Internal Affairs Commissioner he was practically untouchable, as Commissioner…better to be well away from that disaster before it happened. I came back to my senses in time to hear Tucker wind down.

"…and if you're really lucky, you and Cabot can dive dumpsters together, the lezzies that scavenge together stay together, or maybe not. Who knows, she might just kick you to the curb to avoid the fallout from your little implosion" He grinned at me. "Don't worry Benson, I might just look her up myself, after all a nice piece of ass like that needs taking care of, and I'm just the guy to do it" He licked his lips lasciviously. "Cabot and Becket both, now that'd be nice" I saw flaming red, for a split second I focussed on his neck, imagining it cracking between my hands as I choked the life out of him. With immense effort I forced the anger down and the words out.

"Shut your mouth…" I shook my head. "…and leave now, before you say something else really stupid about her and I take care of you permanently" He placed his hands on his hips and grinned wider, obviously happy to have a go at me.

"Oh yeah and what if I don't?" I reached behind my back and placed my hand on my Glock.

"Or I pull out my pistol and blow that goddamned stupid fucking sneer off your face" His eyes darted between the hand behind my back and my face, back and forward as his expression changed and he took a step back.

"You're bluffing" I smiled as coldly as I could.

"Well, you could find out the hard way" He shook his head as he spoke, cold and angry.

"Fine, I always knew you were a psycho, this just proves it; so enjoy what's left of your shitty life Benson, before I completely ruin it, and while I'm at it I'll do the same to Beckett, Cabot and the rest of your pals back at the 16th, you're gonna be like the plague bearer Benson, everyone you've come into contact with is fucked cause I'm gonna break them all"

I felt an icy wave of fear fill me at his words, all those people who worked with me, trusted me, targeted because of me. I shoved some bravado back at him to cover the fact that I was reeling.

"Fuck you Tucker, you come near my friends and you'll regret it" He smiled unpleasantly.

"Threatening an officer Benson, I could arrest you for that" I shook my head once and tightened the grip round the Glock in the small of my back.

"You could try, once" He took in my posture and obviously decided there were other ways to skin a cat.

"You'll never get away with this Benson" I shook my head.

"I already have" With that I took a step back and slammed the door in his face, before collapsing in a heap against the corridor wall as the world collapsed in on me and it all went black.


	65. Chapter 65

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 65**

Olivia

I sat there for god knows how long, just sucking in air, trying to keep a panic attack at bay as Tucker's threats played over and over again inside my head.

All the people I cared for, all the ones I loved, they'd all suffer because of Tucker's twisted hatred, god knows why but he hated me and that hatred now threatened everyone I cared about.

Alex and Kate, the guys at the 16th, people like Casey and Melinda, hell the bastard might go after Mac Taylor and even the team at the 12th, Espo and Ryan and Tori and the others, easy enough if he ended up as the Captain there.

I don't know how long I was there, trying to get my racing thoughts under control, oblivious to anything, the gradual numbing of my butt on the tiles, the Glock digging into the small of my back, that I was getting cold; all I could think about was what I'd done and where it had led.

If only I'd left everything alone, then the case would had died along with everyone Lysenko had killed, Thomas would be none the wiser and all of the people I knew and loved would be safe.

Instead I'd blundered into this mess, all to satisfy my own obsession to see Lysenko's victims remembered somehow, not swept under the bureaucratic carpet to be ignored and forgotten in the name of expediency. In the end I'd got what I wanted but at what cost; a fleeting sense of satisfaction wasn't worth the careers of too many good cops.

Now everyone was going to suffer because of me.

Alex was safe for the moment, but if Thomas made Commissioner the influence he'd wield would be enormous, Reagan was a light touch Commissioner, most of the time he let people get on with their job; Thomas though, he'd be nothing like that, not if how he was behaving now was any indication. If he turned on Alex I could imagine Cutter bowing under the pressure like the weak bastard he was and cutting Alex loose to save his own worthless hide. She was outstanding at her job, plus she loved what she did, to have that taken away because of me, the thought made me sick to the stomach.

Then there was Kate, she was a detective, a damned good one, an outstanding one actually, her record in Homicide was every bit as amazing as she was, she'd fulfilled every scrap of the promise she'd shown as my rookie and then some. To have her career destroyed because of me…I felt like throwing up.

And what about all the others, Don, Finn, Munch and the others at the 16th, Ryan and Esposito and Tori at the 12th, he'd certainly kick Castle out of the 12th, no matter how effective a team he helped make the homicide team there, who knows, maybe they'd go after Casey and Melinda too.

God I'd fucked up, I'd made them all targets.

I don't know how long I sat there; lost in misery. Finally I dragged myself up and walked over to the living area, it was getting late and the sour taste in my mouth was foul. I looked towards the kitchen and grimaced as I thought about a beer, instead deciding I needed something stronger right now so I wandered over to the sideboard and grabbed a tumbler and the whiskey decanter. For a moment I paused, debating what I was doing before deciding the rules didn't apply today then unstopped the decanter and splashed a healthy slug of good quality scotch into the glass, downing half of it in one go, then letting out a gasp at the burn as it went down. I wandered over to the lounge then, changing my mind, walked back to grab the decanter, I knew I needed more than one to deal with this cluster fuck of a day.

I flopped down on the lounge then winced as the Glock dug into my back painfully, I reached round and dragged it out, placing it on the table next to the decanter as I sat back, lost in my thoughts.

I didn't know how I could fix this; Thomas wanted a sacrifice and with probably plenty of urging from Tucker he'd decided that I would do just fine. I accepted that, given what I'd done it was probably karma catching up with me, but I couldn't have other people paying for my sins.

For a while I sat there and lost myself in self-loathing and depression, what I wanted was crawl into bed, cry myself to sleep and never have to deal with it, that was what I wanted to do, unfortunately my mind was spinning from subject to subject, restlessly darting from place to place, I knew I'd never get any sleep when it was like this, besides, even if I could sleep, this train wreck would be there waiting for me when I woke.

Nope, I'd caused this mess, fucked up badly, it was up to me to fix this, god knows how.

I thought about maybe appealing Thomas' behaviour to Reagan then shook my head in disgust; who the hell was he going to believe, one of his deputy commissioners or some burnt-out psyche case from SVU? I snorted in derision, it wasn't even a question.

I had to admit that my career with the NYPD was over, there was no way to avoid it, not with Thomas after me, he'd boxed me in and the fix with the psyche eval was just the final nail to trap me inside the box; one that would kill my career as a cop and send me to shuffle papers until they could run me out, if the mind-numbing monotony of the job didn't get to me first.

I wondered if I quit, if that would be enough of a sacrificial offering to satisfy Thomas and Tucker to satisfy them and protect the others; ' _probably not_ ' I thought with a sigh and a grimace. Both of them had made it clear they wanted to ruin me, to see me broken; besides they'd probably think I was trying to get out before my psyche eval, so that I could try for another job somewhere else.

I mean I could try, but anywhere here in New York or nearby Thomas could try and screw me over, he'd already demonstrated that he had enough reach with his society contacts to make my life hell, it'd be easy to reach out and make sure I didn't work as a cop anywhere; at that level everyone knew someone who knew someone, and as the Commissioner Thomas would have access to every powerful and connected ear in New York.

For a moment I examined my options, I mean from time to time I'd idly wondered what I could do if I wasn't a detective, not that it'd been anything more that speculation, filling in moments when I was frustrated with the job Now though it wasn't speculation, it was my immediate future.

The best options were likely to be non-police roles, doing something like corporate security or maybe working something like a university security gig. I grimaced, I wasn't all that young anymore, they might not even want someone like me, I mean SVU wasn't like homicide or robbery or narcotics, the policing areas that most people understood and appreciated.

Even if I did resign and took a non-police gig somewhere else, there was no guarantee that Thomas wouldn't find out and try and kill it, I wouldn't put it past him, vindictive bastard that he was proving to be.

The Feds were out, even if they'd take me normally, they'd need to do a background check and they'd want references and you could bet Thomas would make sure they were told I was a burn-out, one step ahead of being kicked out of the NYPD.

I mean I had to work, sure Alex was rich and we'd never be short of money but I didn't want to leech off her inheritance; I had to work, to be useful, even if the money I made wasn't a drop in the bucket compared to hers I had to try and pay my way, as best I could; if nothing else my pride demanded nothing less. God knows I'd heard more than enough whispers from some of the people at the events that we'd attended, hurtful, spiteful comments that I was some gold digger, that she was slumming with me, that I wasn't worthy of her, both of which were true but it sure as hell hurt when people pointed at the love of your life and suggested you weren't good enough for her, insinuated you were only in it for the money, I shook my head as the old doubts rose up once more.

The voices that whispered that Alex would be better off without me, that I wasn't worthy of her, that I was holding her back, that I brought nothing to the table, that I couldn't give her a child or happiness or anything really… For a moment I let the self-hate run over me, almost appreciating the pain it brought before shaking my head. I reached out and grabbed the tumbler, slamming down the rest of the whiskey, feeling its burn hit me and break my concentration.

I rolled the tumbler across my forehead, the cool glass helping me focus.

Alex loved me, god knows why but she did, she'd made it plain that she loved me the same way I loved her, totally and without reservations, she was the single brightest thing in my life and she'd told me the same thing, over and over until I'd started to really believe it too. God knows I'd do anything for her, shoulder any burden, all to protect her. I'd failed to do that once and lost her for years into Witness Protection, I'd take a bullet in an instant to protect her, from any threat, even bastards like Thomas and Tucker.

That meant I had to get out from under Thomas and Tucker and do it in a way that they wouldn't come after Alex and Kate and the others, there had to be a way, I just had to find it.

For a moment I idly wondered if Rick needed another detective for his Richard Castle Investigations agency then shook my head, that'd be like taking charity from him and probably bring Thomas' wrath down on Kate even harder as well; I couldn't risk that. No I needed to find a way to get out of this mess without endangering them either.

I'd thought of going to the union, even spoken to a representative but they'd confirmed that what Thomas and Tucker were doing was by the book, the rep had grimaced and shrugged before telling me that he didn't that there was anything that could be done, they'd played by the rules and while it looked like it sucked, there was nothing illegal there for the union to protest.

For a moment I sat there and wished Tucker and Thomas would just vanish, that they'd wind up dead and all my problems with them, it wouldn't be all that hard really, then brought myself up short. I was a cop, that sort of thinking was fine for civilians but I was a trained cop, armed with a weapon and the skills to use it effectively, that sort of quick easy fix sounded seductive but that way led straight to hell.

No, I'd got myself into this mess so it was up to me to deal with it, the right way.

I tried to think of what I could do, what I could offer Thomas that would make him back off of the others. Obviously he'd want a sacrifice; that much was certain. I could offer to resign but that might not be enough, he might see me as escaping his 'justice', I could imagine Tucker perched on Thomas' shoulder like some twisted little Satan, whispering in his ear, telling him I should be in a jail cell, that they could put me there. I shook my head; no way would Tucker let me escape him now, not when he had Thomas' support and a way to see me broken.

If I quit I'd never work in law enforcement in New York, so that meant my time as a cop or anything like it was probably over, on the other hand if I stayed this time next week my time as a NYPD detective was over.

Maybe if I told them that I'd take my lumps, stick it out in admin until I retired, that they'd won and I'd take my punishment, maybe that would satisfy them enough to leave the others alone.

I snorted, who was I kidding? I'd made an enemy of one of the most powerful men in the NYPD. He'd get that anyway, no matter what, plus he and Tucker would see to it that I'd get the shittiest assignments, the worst treatment, that I was a pariah, my life a misery until they could toss me out, or even better, find some way to stitch me up and see me rotting in Ryker's.

I sighed and lowered my head into my hands; there seemed no way out of this mess, well no way which protected the others. All of them were going to suffer because of me.

I don't know how long I sat there, lost in my dark thoughts, it must have been a while, the level in the decanter was half what it had been even if I didn't feel any benefit, my mind was still clear and sharp even if my future was anything but.

I was still lost in my thoughts when a soft, hesitant voice broke my concentration; I looked up to see a pair of scared blue eyes on me, flicking between the tumbler, the Glock and me.

"Liv…are you okay?"


	66. Chapter 66

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 66**

Welcome to the finale of this story, I'd like to let everyone know how much I appreciate all of you for taking the time to finish it with me. I'd also like to say how grateful I am that you took the time to read this work, comment on, favourite and follow it.

Thank you all so much.

There will be two final chapters for this story, in that there will be two possible endings.

The first chapter will bring this story to a self-contained conclusion. This is for those readers who were after an L&O: SVU story and don't want to have to immerse themselves in the whole 'Intersecting Lines' universe.

When I started this I promised that you didn't have to have read those stories to enjoy this one and I wanted to keep my promise to those readers. This is your chapter.

The second ending will intermingle with the wider 'Intersecting Lines' plot, with this story coming to a different ending, only to pick up again in Intersecting Lines Book 3.

The Intersecting Lines ending is for those readers who want the full, interconnected experience that ties Alex and Olivia tightly into that story, which is a core part of the whole universe. That finale will be posted as Chapter 67.

Either way, once again thanks to all of you for taking the time to be a part of this story.

 **Olivia**

"Liv…are you okay?" I started at her voice;

"Oh, Alex, hi…um" Alex was standing there, concern in her voice and writ plain on her face, as I followed her eyes to the gun and glass in front of her. Realising she was worried about the drink I tried to play down her concerns and make as if nothing was wrong. "How was your day?" Alex carefully placed her purse on the other couch and made her way over to me.

"Better than yours I think" Alex sat down next to me and turned to look my way. "What's going on?" I looked at her and tried to down play her concerns for me.

"What do you mean?" She waved at the table in front of me as I looked away, ashamed that she'd found me drinking.

"Nothing really, I was just thinking"

"You were just thinking, with a gun out in front of you?" I suddenly realised how it must have looked and raced to reassure her it that it wasn't anything like it looked.

"Oh god no, no, it's nothing like that; I had it, just in case, when Tucker dropped that in…" I indicated the letter on the table. She reached out and grabbed it, reading it as her expression hardened. "It's nothing Alex" She looked up at me, her eyes full of sadness and worry as I tried to console her, take some of that worry away. "I'm sorry; I don't want to worry you"

"Well you are" She reached out and picked up the glass, holding it up. "Please Liv, talk to me" I could understand her worry, I never really touched the hard stuff, not after the example my mother had provided; Serena Benson, alcoholic, died from suffocating on her own vomit in a drunken stupor.

"It's just everything's piling up on me, Tucker and Thomas have both made it clear they want to break me, plus Tucker's threatened Kate, claim's he's going to replace Gates at Captain there when Thomas makes Commissioner and make her life hell, same for all the others I've worked with" Alex put the glass down and focussed on me.

"Is that even likely? Thomas as Commissioner I mean?" I shrugged.

"It's possible, he's running away from his association with Syme as fast as he can, his office is spraying out statements distancing him from Syme's support and we know this city can have a stupidly short memory" She demurred at that.

"That won't happen for years though, it's too soon for him to make a run for the Commissioner's job; Reagan will get at least another term before Thomas could even consider making a run" I nodded morosely as I replied, god knows I'd thought about it over and over.

"Yeah, he'll stay in the IA Commissioner's role, which is one of the most powerful roles in the force, not a good place to have an enemy" She reached out and laid her hand over mine, it was soft and warm.

"This is really unlike you Liv, you're normally more upbeat that this" I nodded slowly.

"I'm sorry Al, it's just that dealing with all the hits, it's hard; they just keep coming" She nodded slowly.

"Charlie said you had a visitor today?" I nodded glumly.

"Yeah, Tucker dropped by to personally deliver that summons to the psychologist they've arranged, naturally the fix is in and I'm gonna fail" I shook my head once angrily as I pressed on. "They even arranged a doctor I have to go and see if I'm not well, to make sure I can't get out of it by claiming to be sick" I barked out a bitter laugh. "He wanted to tell me the fix was in personally" I saw Alex grimace, she'd known what an irritant the man was, had been for years. Then, as I watched, she got a puzzled look on her face, then spoke, her voice questioning.

"Hang on; you mean Tucker was here, in the apartment?" I nodded; I thought I'd explained that, maybe I didn't.

"Yeah, him and Thomas both actually' Alex shook her head then spoke, her voice questioning.

"I thought Thomas had called you in to 1PP?" I shook my head as I explained.

"No, they both decided to come see me" I grimaced as I thought back to Thomas' visit. "Nothing like the personal treatment, I love being threatened to my face" Alex was obviously still processing what I'd said.

"Let me get this straight, both Tucker and Thomas threatened you; here?" I nodded, wondering why this was suddenly so important to her.

"Yeah, Thomas back before the story broke last week and Tucker today" She nodded slowly then spoke, one hand coming out to rest on my arm as she did.

"Liv, this is critically important, where…exactly…did you talk to them?" I must have looked my surprise as she spoke again. "Please?" If it was important to her then it was important to me so I pointed towards the far end of the room.

"Well Tucker was standing in the doorway out in the hall" I shrugged. "I wasn't going to let that bastard inside" She nodded quickly, her tone starting to lift.

"And Thomas?" Confused I pointed to the entrance to the living area from the foyer.

"Over there" By now Alex was really excited, already hopping up off the couch and heading that way.

"Show me exactly where" I tipped my head to look at her as I got up and ambled her way.

"Alex, what's all this about?" The look she turned on me was pleading, the same as her tone.

"Show me Liv, please?" Shrugging I moved over to where she was and with one hand positioned her just inside the room.

"Thomas was here, at least at the start" I moved back few feet and then turned to face her. "And I was here" She nodded abruptly, all nervous, excited energy.

"And he threatened you here, right here right?" I nodded as I recalled the conversation, not that I was likely to forget it.

"Yeah, threatened us both, mostly me" I explained. "He was pretty pissed, especially when I called him on his shit, but he was pretty specific as to what he wanted"

"Tell me what he said while he was standing here" At my questioning look she tipped her head and pleaded with me. "Please Liv, this is critically important" I'd never been able to say no to her, not when she turned those big blue eyes on me and hit me with the 'please Liv's' so I shrugged.

"He stood there and told me that he thought I was on the take, that that was the reason I could live here in a place like this, told me that he'd see me run out of the force in disgrace, that he'd try and get you disbarred and fired" I shook my head at the memory. "It got ugly Al, he said…well he said he'd see us rooting round in garbage bins to survive, told me that when he was done I'd be begging in the street to survive"

"Yes!" I looked at Alex in shock as she practically bounced up and down, a huge smile on her face.

"Uh Al…?" She stopped bouncing enough to look at me as realisation appeared on her face.

"Oh my god you've forgotten" I frowned, confused and obviously showing it; talk about cryptic…

"Forgotten what?" She stepped over to me and grabbed both my arms as she spoke.

"When we had the repairs done after the…incident" I nodded, Alex still had some issues dealing with the knowledge a killer had been in our home. "Anyway I got a security company in to install that heavy duty front door and they suggested that we fit some cameras" I nodded,

"Yeah, the door camera" She shook her head and let go as she waved her hand around the apartment as she spoke.

"Not just the one for the door, they installed a couple, there's the one on the door, another in the foyer and a final one that covers the entrance to the living area" I frowned, the privacy implications…

"We've had camera's covering us inside?" She shrugged.

"Only the entrance, but that includes this area right here" I frowned, not really following her.

"How does that help?"

"The cameras are activated by movement in the field of view, without movement there's no video, so it doesn't record us saying or doing anything unless we're in the field of view" I nodded, relieved that we'd managed to retain something of our privacy.

"Thank god for that" I got a cheeky grin tossed my way.

"Yeah, you are pretty loud" I crossed my arms and gave her 'the look'.

"Says the woman screaming my name two nights back" She waved that away with a smirk as she brought us back on track.

"The video, including audio, is recorded and stored remotely, there's a copy of everything that was said stored on the security company servers back at their operations room, including everything Thomas and Tucker both said"

I took in her huge smile and started to feel a little hope start to dawn.

"You mean…everything?" She nodded.

"Everything" She shook her head. "I thought I'd told you about it back when it was installed but you were really busy with the investigation and the shooting team and all the rest so you probably forgot" I nodded, I didn't recall it but that was hardly surprising.

"I didn't realise…" She waved up towards the light fitting at this end of the living area.

"They're supposed to be not really noticeable" I nodded at that, I hadn't seen them; on the other hand I hadn't been looking. Even now I really couldn't see them as looked up and moved back and forth, peering around until I saw a dark wire amongst the chandelier leading to a small camera mounted in the lights. I looked back at Alex and asked the obvious question.

"So what now?" Her grin was blinding.

"First thing in the morning you and I and my attorney are going to go down there and watch those tapes" I broke in, surprised.

"You, you're an attorney and you have an attorney?" She paused, thrown by the non sequitur and then nodded.

"Yes, my family has a civil law firm on retainer, a very good, very expensive law firm; they can now earn their money for a change. If those tapes contain what I hope they do, our next stop is going to be Reagan's office where we make him sit down and watch them as well"

"Uh Angel, I can't just walk into the Commissioner's office…" She brushed that aside.

"You might not but I can and will. And when I tell him that he either sees us or sees the latest NYPD scandal splashed across the front page of every paper and television news report in New York, together with a criminal damages lawsuit that will run into the tens of millions, you bet he'll make time to see us" I stood there stunned, she was mapping out a way I could maybe escape this mess intact.

"Uh Alex, I don't know what to say" She walked up and kissed me long and hard.

"Say you love me you idiot" I smiled, a little goofy, but Alex's deep kisses did that to me.

"I love you, you idiot" I got a playful shove and a happy grin.

"Moron" I tipped my head to regard her, smiling softly as I gazed up into her gorgeous blue eyes.

"Your moron" That truth got me a smile and a nod.

"I suppose you are" I nodded happily and pulled her into my arms for a well overdue kiss and cuddle session which went on for quite a while before we eventually just relaxed in each other's arms. Finally we made our way back to the couch where we lay snuggled together. I just revelled in it for a while having her laying on top of me, savouring her closeness before finally I spoke, reluctant to break the mood.

"You think we've really got a chance?" She looked down at me from where she was lying half on top of me and nodded slowly.

"If the tapes caught him saying even half of what you said he did, I'll have his ass on charges of harassment, abuse of the power of his office and corrupt behaviour plus conspiracy; based on Tucker's statements, plus there's enough there for a massive civil lawsuit for the personal harassment" I nodded slowly, wondering how things had turned around so quickly. A little suspicious that a way out of this mess could ever be this easy for me I had to ask a question.

"Can you make it stick?" She grinned wickedly down at me as she replied.

"I happen to know this amazing prosecutor and she knows Thomas is in a world of pain" I nodded as hope started to blossom.

"And Tucker?" At my question her grin turned ruthlessly feral.

"If the tapes caught him threatening you, I will have his job, his pension and hopefully his ass in a cell" I smiled at the thought of Tucker getting the same treatment he'd threatened Kate and I with and smiled happily.

"I think I could be happy with that" She nodded then spoke.

"Reagan might want to fight it, but I doubt he's that stupid, especially given my reputation" She smiled, all eager, evil anticipation. "I think he's going to fold when I tell him that if he doesn't fix this mess and charge them both I will happily advise my lawyers to drag both those idiots, and by association the NYPD and him personally, through the civil courts, by the time I'm finished their reputation would be trashed, Reagan would look like an idiot, the NYPD would be a laughing stock" She smiled down at me and continued. "Either way, as a happy side effect you my dear Liv, would be rich" I frowned; rich?

"Me, how?" She chuckled softly.

"I think a twenty million dollar civil damages claim for what he's put you through might serve as an appropriate penalty, even if Reagan doesn't charge Thomas I'm going to make him pay" She tipped her head to look at me. "He's supposed to be from old money, I wonder how he's going to like being from no money?" She winked happily. "Then you'd be rich and able to buy me that diamond ring I've been eyeing off in Tiffany's, the one you were going to put on my finger when you proposed"

I was suffering from a bad case of whiplash; I'd gone from the end of the world to Al's assertion that the tables had turned and I wouldn't be losing anything; that my life was going to change completely; in the proverbial blink of an eye. I blame that for the monumentally stupid thing I said next.

"I was?" She nodded happily and settled down, lying on me and relaxing, her voice soft and happy.

"Yes you were, the day we win our massive payout at Thomas' expense" She leaned up and kissed me, long and deep, filling me with warmth and happiness and love, something I returned with as much of the love I had for her as I possibly could. Finally we broke apart, if only to breathe as I stared at her, seeing her eyes had darkened and feeling the reaction that kiss had awakened. We stared at each other for a few seconds until I spoke.

"Uh Angel, how about we move this to the bedroom?" The sly smile I got was pure heat, as was her low purring voice.

"Why I thought you'd never ask" She held up one finger. "On one condition?" I nodded happily, anything for her.

"Name it" She pulled a face as she spoke.

"Toothpaste and mouthwash, that whiskey's a little strong" I blushed and looked away, getting a throaty chuckle as her light weight lifted off me and she strolled towards the bedroom; pausing at the start of the hall to look back over her shoulder through her blonde veil of hair. "Coming Tiger?" I nodded as I rolled to my feet.

"I sure hope so" Alex's laughter followed her as she sashayed down the hall as I stood there, for a moment giving my thanks to god for Alex, whatever would I do without her? Fortunately I'd never have to find out.

I looked down, seeing the pistol, whiskey and letter on the table and shook my head before making my way towards the bedroom and the unbelievable blonde beauty waiting for me.

Maybe, just maybe, we'd be okay.

 _Fini_


	67. Chapter 67

**Breaking Barriers Chapter 67**

 **Intersecting Lines Tie In**

Hi guys, thank you for staying with me to the end. This is the final chapter that leads directly into Intersecting Lines Book 3, in fact to be picked up immediately in Chapter 8.

I really hope you've enjoyed this story and would encourage you to continue to follow Alex and Olivia's journey in Book 3 of Intersecting Lines.

 **Alex**

The day had been an absolute bear; I'd lost the case because the jury, mostly composed of minorities, had bought the defence argument that the officers in question; Amaro and Rollins, had identified and investigated the suspect because they were racially profiling him. I'd argued until I was blue in the face that they had followed a chain of evidence which had led to the defendant, but in these days of the 'black lives matter' campaign the black defence attorney had slammed the case as two white officers investigating the robbery and rape of a an older white woman and stitching up an 'innocent' black kid for it. He'd even inferred that I was a white woman prosecuting the kid out of some racial agenda, I'd angrily objected to that immediately, getting the judge to sustain but I could see some of the jury had bought it.

Defence had claimed that the fact he lived in the same building was the reason his fingerprints were all over her purse which had been found in a dumpster at the end of the alley behind the apartment block both victim and assailant had lived in, that he'd found it in the alley and thinking it was trash, had thrown it in the dumpster; yeah right. It was all complete BS but I'd seen more than enough juries to know he was selling what they wanted to buy, I'd predicted the verdict before they'd risen to deliberate and hadn't been surprised at the innocent on all charges verdict. Appalled but not surprised.

Even the judge had been stunned, questioning the jury foreman at length before finally accepting their decision; he'd then turned to me and asked if the State of New York was going to file an appeal. I'd nodded and stated that we would be filing just as soon as we could get the paperwork done which explained why it was now well after 8 and I was only just getting home.

I said hello to Charlie who smiled at me and told me it had been a quiet day. When I asked if he had seen Liv he shook his head, telling me Miss Benson hadn't been down all day, at least as far as he had seen, but that she'd had a plain clothes police officer barge in to see her. Frowning inwardly at that, nothing good came of those visits and it probably meant she'd had one of her bad days and stayed inside, I nodded and made my way up to our place.

Careful that she might be asleep, when she had a bad day she could be found asleep at all hours of the day, something she usually explained as either just feeling fatigued or that sleep brought an escape from her thoughts. I noted the lights were on as I made my way through the foyer, seeing Liv sitting on the couch in the living room. I was about to say something when I realised three things.

The first was she was sitting there with her head in her hands, every line of her posture full of defeat. The second was the mostly empty tumbler of whiskey on the low table in front of her with the bottle sitting nearby, the third and most alarming was her service pistol sitting right in front of her. Normally you never saw it unless she was cleaning it; it usually went straight into the gun safe as soon as she got home, to see it out now…

The sight and the implications were deeply terrifying.

"Liv…are you okay?" She started at my voice; clearly she hadn't heard my arrival and expected to see me.

"Oh, Alex, hi…um" She must have followed my eyes to the gun and glass in front of her. "How was your day?" I placed my purse on another couch and made my way over to her.

"Better than yours I think" I sat next to her and turned to look at her. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?" I waved at the table in front of her as she looked away. "Nothing really, I was just thinking"

"You were thinking, with a gun in front of you?" I bent my head to meet her downcast eyes. "Liv…talk to me…please"

"It's nothing Alex" She looked up at me, her eyes full of sadness. "I'm sorry; I don't want to worry you"

"Well you are" I reached out and picked up the glass, the aroma was my scotch, we kept it for visitors, Liv was careful around the hard stuff, after the horrible example of her mother. "You rarely touch the hard stuff, but here you are making headway on a bottle of scotch. Mind telling me what's happened?"

"I've been summoned to another psyche evaluation, some friend of Thomas apparently. Naturally the fix is in, they've even specified which doctor to go to if was to try and get out of it by claiming to be sick" She snorted humourlessly and waved towards a folded letter on the table. "It's all there" Putting the glass down I reached out and picked up the letter, scanning it quickly, the names jumping out, the psychiatrist, Charles Moore, the doctor, Phillip Manning, it was all pretty much as Liv had said, the fix was obviously in. I tossed the letter back on the table and looked back at her.

"How do we fight this?" I said, indicating the discarded letter, but Liv just slowly shook her head as she replied.

"I'm damned if I know, even if I was to get sick before the shrink visit, they've demanded that I go to their doctor, he'll state that I'm well enough to be evaluated, even if I was dying, then this Moore guy will determine that I'm unfit for duty, all done and dusted, the report's already written and sitting on Thomas' desk by now" She shrugged. "This time next week I'll be in my new assignment, somewhere in admin shuffling papers" I frowned, there must be some way to fight this.

"I know the union's been no help, have you considered appealing to Reagan?" Liv shook her head.

"Like he'd listen to me, not against the word of one of his commissioners" I ground my teeth in frustration, she was right. Then a thought came to me.

"Have you thought about going back to the media, letting Andrea and the others know what's been done to you because of their story?" I ducked my head to look into her sad eyes. "It might help"" Liv gave me a small, sad smile.

"Thomas would then have me for unauthorised contact with the media, that's grounds for sanctions up to dismissal, especially as he previously warned me not to talk to them" I pulled a face, she was right. "Besides, he wouldn't believe that I'd acted alone, he'd go after Kate and the others" I frowned, that seemed a little paranoid.

"You think so?" Liv snorted at that, looking up at me, the bitterness in her face was a shock.

"I know so, Tucker was kind enough to drop that in" She indicated the letter. "…along with a few comments about how Kate and the guys at the 12th, the SVU team at the 16th and anyone else involved were all going to pay" She shook her head as she continued. "He says he's going to replace Gates' as Captain at the 12th just as soon as Thomas replaces Reagan, so he can make Kate's life hell. That's going to be his reward from Thomas for screwing me over"

I sat there, frantically thinking it through, Thomas wasn't all that well known and Reagan, despite some issues, was looking good for another term, but the election after that…anything could happen.

"Do you think we should talk to Kate, get her input, she might have some ideas, I mean Rick is friends with the Mayor?" Liv shook her head.

"No, I don't want her to get any more tarred with the same brush than she already is, it's me Thomas and Tucker want, they want me to pay for that media coverage" She paused for a moment, her mouth twisting in disgust. "Well Thomas does, Tuckers' just being a vindictive, twisted prick" I nodded, unable to argue with that truth. "Anyway, if they get what they want with me, they might leave you and the others alone" I frowned, me?

"What do you mean me?" Liv looked surprised at the question then nodded.

"Tucker told me that you're on their shit list too, that when Thomas makes Commissioner he's going to go after you too" I scowled at that; he could try but no way in hell would I stand for it.

Right then and there I decided that the considerable Cabot fortune and contacts were going to make sure Thomas never made Commissioner, I may not be able to touch the man right now but his election chances were something else entirely. The man was entirely the wrong person to wield that level of power, his behaviour with Liv was a perfect example of that. Even so, that was in the future and we needed to do something right now.

"I wonder if we should go away…" I was free thinking, looking at options. "I mean we haven't had a holiday in years, we both have holidays banked up, both of us get out of New York and take a few months to let this die down, then you look for another job, one out of Thomas' reach" She shook her head slowly.

"Where Al, as a commissioner and a well-connected one, his reach is everywhere. If I quit I'm sure he'd try and screw me over and anywhere I go will want references and my record, you can bet Thomas will make sure that shows an unfavourable psyche assessment, no one would hire me"

"What about leaving New York, going somewhere else far away?" I cast about for a moment, looking for an alternative. "How about Los Angeles, we could talk to Brenda, I know she would put a word in for you" She smiled, so sad that it hurt to see.

"I'm not dragging you away from your job Angel, you've worked damned hard all your career to get to where you are, you're the best SVU prosecutor in New York's history, one of the best prosecutors in New York, period. I'm not letting you walk away from all that because I screwed up" I shook my head at that.

"I'd go anywhere with you Liv, you know that" She wasn't listening, all too willing to sacrifice everything for me, making me wonder once again how I'd ever got so lucky with her.

"You love this job Al, that's one of the reasons you're so damned good at it" She smiled a little wanly. "You might bitch and moan but deep down you love it. There's no way I'm going to take that away from you"

"But it's not worth it if your suffering" She shrugged heavily.

"I think its karma Angel, if I have to suffer to appease Thomas and Tucker, to keep him from going after you and all the others, well I kinda guess that's my punishment"

"I don't know Liv, maybe I could talk to Brenda and Maura and Jane, maybe they could help?" She shook her head slowly, the tired resignation easily apparent as she waved that idea away.

"Leave it be Angel, I made my bed, now I have to lie in it" She sighed deeply. "Speaking of which, I'm going to lie down for a bit" She looked at me and I could see the pain and exhaustion in her eyes. "It's been a hell of a day"

"Are you sure Liv?" She smiled wanly.

"I will be, I've got you Alex, everything else doesn't matter" She leaned over and kissed me gently before getting up and walking off towards the bedroom, leaving me sitting there staring at the letter, the whiskey and most disturbingly of all, her pistol sitting out on the table. That alone was a massive indicator of how badly she was rattled, Liv never had her pistol out in the apartment, not unless she was cleaning it, it went inside the safe as soon as she got home, for her to leave it out…

I sat there for a very long time, my mind going over everything I'd heard, her posture, the…defeat that seemed to have taken hold. Liv was one of the strongest people I've ever met, but every person had their limits and this case had found hers. More than a decade on SVU had weighed her down with the crushing burden of responsibility for the most helpless in our society, Liv had fought the good fight, done far better than most, but each fight had taken a little out of her, each loss even more until she was running on empty.

Then that damned case, to see all those kids die, that would have been bad enough, but to have all those kids die while she blamed herself, that had been the final straw…

I shook my head, wishing Lysenko an eternity of torture in hell for all those innocent souls, all that blood on his hands.

It was obvious to me now that Lysenko was well on the way to maybe claiming another victim, another life lost thanks to that soulless monster. I shook my head; there was no way I was going to lose Liv, not to him, not like this. I stared down at the ground between my feet then looked up and swore an oath to whoever might be listening.

"Not her you bastard, not while I still live"

My words were surprisingly loud in the silent room, making me look towards our bedroom, hoping I hadn't woken her; I waited for a while but there was silence, I suspect Liv's depression combined with the alcohol had driven her deep into sleep, drained beyond measure. Shaking my head I set my mind to thinking of a way out.

The first thought was taking her and heading away, far from New York and everything that was happening. As far from the NYPD and Thomas and Tucker and all the rest of this monumental mess as we could get; I could walk away from my job, god knows I didn't need the money, but on the other hand I knew exactly how Liv would handle that.

She'd see that as another thing lost because of her; that losing the job I loved and was so good at was her fault. That no matter how much more important she was to me than the job, that this was all because of her.

The fact that in a way it was didn't bother me, I'd known she'd been driven by the same idealism and integrity that had first attracted me to her all those years ago, so blaming her for those traits was foolish, they were just two of the many reasons I loved her.

I loved her more than anything, the same way she loved me, she lived for me, making me wonder what I'd done to deserve someone so loving and compassionate and selfless, lord knows she'd been there for me time after time over the years. I'd fallen for her over coffee and arguments about warrants and walks in the rain and commiserating after cases lost or celebrating cases won.

Since we'd got together I'd never been as happy, to love a beautiful woman and know she loved me more than anything was the most sublime joy, to know that there was someone out there who loved you more than anything, who would do anything for you, that knowledge was both humbling and empowering. I ground my teeth, how dare those bastards threaten the woman I loved?

I thought of us perhaps moving to another city, somewhere Liv could be a detective and I could get a job, I wasn't vain but I knew any DA's office in the country would jump at having me, especially with my conviction rate these last few years, I'd set records each year, then broken them the next. The problem was that any police department would want references and service records before offering Liv a job and there was no knowing what Thomas might do if Liv tried to escape him. Probably try and ruin her given what we'd seen of him so far.

From what Liv had said, Thomas had decided to break her; using Tucker as his hammer and the no-doubt already-written adverse psyche evaluation as the anvil. I could see where that would lead; Liv would be stripped of her role as a detective and end up pushing meaningless paperwork in some dead-end job until she cracked.

Thomas wanted her to quit or find a way to have her fired, either way he'd make sure she'd never work as a cop again, he was determined to have his pound of flesh and Liv was going to be sacrificed on the altar of his electoral ambitions. Tucker though was even worse, he wanted Liv to end up in jail, the lack of any evidence of corruption or wrongdoing be damned, I scowled to myself, the situation had got where it was with him partly because I'd respected Liv's wishes and stayed out of the internal NYPD politics, unfortunately that had led us to where we were right now.

I didn't really have any cards to play right now, the situation had got to an end point and there was little I could do in the time we had available; I didn't like admitting that I couldn't handle something but this was one of those few times where the Cabot money and influence couldn't get the result I wanted, not in time anyway. There was nothing I could make happen in time and once that report was in it would stain her reputation irrevocably, bringing her career to an end.

That was bad, so much of Liv's self-esteem and sense of self-worth were all tied up in her career and the value she derived from protecting the weak, avenging the fallen and delivering justice for the victims. What was worse was the toll this whole mess had taken on her psyche, too many years of lost causes and the daily misery of SVU had ground her down and this last case had been the proverbial straw. Now Liv was deep in misery and darkness and I needed to pull her back from the spiral she was in.

What I truly needed was help; Kate Beckett would naturally jump to help but she'd been deep inside the same mess so Liv would see any advice from Kate, no matter how good it was, as tainted by their shared experience on the case and in that dark room in the power plant.

I needed someone who could come give her advice without having it biased in Liv's eyes by association with the case, someone she respected and whose words she'd listen to.

I sat there for a few minutes then got up and walked across the room and into the hall, ending up standing there looking into our bedroom, seeing Liv lying there in the dim light seeping in from the living room. She was sleeping curled up in a foetal position, that wasn't normal either, normally she slept stretched out on her back or side, not like this. I wondered if it was her subconscious curling in on itself, trying to hide from the depression. I stood there for a while, leaning in the doorway, just watching her and reflecting on all the good times we'd had when a low whimper brought me out of my reverie, it was Liv; she was obviously having another bad nightmare.

Unthinkingly I made my way across the room to kneel by the bed, gently resting my hand on her forehead, feeling her slight trembling and seeing her eyes moving rapidly under her eyelids, she was obviously asleep but was getting little respite. I almost woke her but she whimpered a couple of more times before they died off as she relaxed under my gaze. I thought about waking her before finally deciding to let her sleep, god knows she obviously needed the rest from the torment.

I watched her for a few minutes, seeing her face finally relax as she slipped into a deeper and hopefully more restful sleep, the sight of her there helping make my mind made up; I placed a gentle kiss to her forehead then stood and walked back across the room and out into the living room where I fished my cell out of my purse. Liv might be furious I was bringing them in on this, but honestly listening to the woman I loved whimpering in terror in her sleep as she dealt with those nightmares had made my decision for me.

I opened the directory and thumbed through till I came to 'J', selecting the first name there.

A moment of warring thoughts were pushed aside as I walked into the kitchen, further away from the bedroom and any chance of waking Liv as I hit the name there; ' _Jane Rizzoli_ '.

It rang twice before she picked up.

" _Hi Alex, how are you?_ "

For a moment I was silent, then it was as if a dam burst, it all spilled out of me as the silent tears came, before I could finally get the words out.

"Jane, oh thank god you're there"

 _To be continued..._


End file.
